12 ANIMAI. PARASITES 



Now dirt and poverty predispose to eczematous 

 eruptions ; and those with such disease are, in 

 these circumstances of life, more liable to come im 

 contact with others infested with pedicuU, and 

 thus the animals are transferred from one person 

 to another. We all know how quickly one infested 

 head in a school, or public institution, affects the 

 other children, even when considerable care and 

 cleanliness are exercised. But these insects 

 never come except from contagion. The vermin 

 crawl from one person to another. The eggs or 

 nits are not transferred, for these adhere tena- 

 ciously to the hairs where they are deposited by 

 the female insect. All stories of the spontaneous 

 generation of these or any other vermin are simply 

 ridiculous, and arise from ignorance, and the lack 

 of accurate and truthful observation. Care and 

 cleanliness are necessary on the part of all who are 

 forced to come in immediate contact with the dirty 

 and squalid. Some sympathy, we hold, should 

 be felt by the community for physicians who are 

 obliged to do this, as it is quite as disagreeable 

 for them as for others. Moreover, to say they 

 are used to it is no argument, since the getting 



