462 I'HILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1731. 



The General Quadrature of Hyperbolic Curves, defined by Trinomial Equations. 

 By Samuel Klingenstiern, Professor of Mathematics in the Academy at Upsal, 

 andF.R.S. N°417, p. 45. 



A paper now not of any use. 



A remarkable Plica Polonica. By Abraham Fater, M.D. with an Account 

 of the Cause of it. By Dr. Sprengell. N" 417, p. 50. Abridged from the 

 Latin. 



A country woman of" Poland, who was married at the age of 15, was in her 

 18th year seized with the endemic disorder of that country, which from the plait- 

 ing of the hair is called the plica polonica.* She was afflicted with it for 50 

 years together, and during most of that time, she was confined to her bed by 

 pains and contractions of the limbs and joints, which at length ended in maras- 

 mus. Worn out with age, she died in her 78th year. Dr. Floerke, physician to 

 Prince Radzivil, not only visited this woman while she was living, and caused 

 a drawing to be taken of her as represented in iig. 3, pi. 7, but also cut off the 

 plica after her death, and brought it to Wittemberg. It was 4 ells long, 1 palm 

 broad, and 1 inches thick ; but it would (Dr. F. says) have been much longer, 

 had not a great part of it been rubbed and rotted oft' during the long time the 

 patient was confined to her bed. 



The plica has always been supposed to be an infectious disorder ; but Dr. 

 Sprengell, from the best information he could procure, thinks it is owing to 

 nastiness, from neglecting to comb the hair and wash the head :-}- for if it 

 were really an infectious disorder, persons of the higher ranks would be as liable 

 to it as the common people ; whereas it is confined to these last. This opinion 

 is confirmed by the following article in the Acta Breslav. for August 1724. 



" The great number of people in Poland who are troubled with the plica, 

 first made me reflect, whether it were a real distemper or not ; and I am now 

 convinced that their filtiiy mode of living, and the opinion entertained by the 

 generality of the people that these plaited locks of hair cannot be cut off with- 

 out danger of their lives, have contributed more to this complaint than any real 

 indisposition of the body; for it is only the middling or poorer sort of people 

 who are troubled with it, and whom it is impossible to contemplate without 

 horror; but no Germans, of whom great numbers live in Poland, ever have 



* Termed by nosological writers trichoma. 



+ Joined to bad diet. It is stated in another part of the Transactions that tliis woman's only 

 sustenance was coarse bread, raw herbs and water. 



