io STUDIES IN INSECT LIFE, ETC. 



is a certain psychic disgust which causes many 

 officers to fear lice more than they fear bullets. 

 Also by rubbing or scratching the lice may be 

 crushed on the skin. The germs of disease within 

 them may thus be inoculated directly into the 

 blood through the surface of the skin damaged 

 by the scratch. Soldiers should, further, always 

 avoid touching their eyes after scratching insect- 

 bites. Lice are the constant accompaniment of 

 all armies ; and in the South African War as soon 

 as a regiment halted they stripped to the skin, 

 turned their clothes inside out and picked the 

 Anoplura off. As a private said to me : " We 

 strips and we picks 'em off and puts 'em in the 

 sun, and it kind o' breaks the little beggars' 'earts! " 

 There were serious outbreaks of typhus during 

 the recent and present Balkan wars among the 

 combatants, prisoners, and refugees. These epi- 

 demics were spread by lice. Again, typhus and 

 relapsing fever are endemic in various areas along 

 the eastern front of the present theatre of war, and 

 these diseases have devastated stricken Serbia. 



Another insect which pierces the skin of man 

 and destroys the continuity of his integument is 

 the bed-bug, Cimex lectularius. 



