PREVENTION OF LOUSINESS 401 



In Washington and other cities where negresses do much of the 

 laundering the family wash is a common source of infestation. 

 Closely packed street cars, school cloak rooms, unclean rooming 

 houses — all these and many other means may serve to start 

 a new colony of lice. 



Perfect cleanUness will usually result in their quick ehmination. 

 A shampoo with warm water and soap, frequent baths, clean 

 underclothes, pressed suits, and other items of personal care are 

 inimical to the welfare of the unwelcome visitors. Certain 

 remedies are, however, useful in the quick destruction of these 

 pests. Head lice can best be destroyed by a thorough washing of 

 the head with a two per cent carbolic acid solution or a kerosene 

 emulsion (equal parts kerosene and olive oil). When one of 

 these remedies has been thoroughly rubbed into the hair the 

 head should be covered with a cloth. After several hours the 

 ointment is washed off in warm water and soap and the dead 

 lice removed with a fine-tooth comb. In long hair this treat- 

 ment is applied by having the patient lie down with the hair 

 hanging over the edge of a bed into a pan of the carbolic solution 

 or kerosene emulsion, the hair being sluiced backward and forward 

 for ten minutes until thoroughly saturated. The treatment may 

 have to be repeated after about ten days to destroy lice which 

 have hatched in the meantime, but usually the eggs are des- 

 troyed as well as the adult lice. Crab lice can be destroyed best 

 by the use of mercurial ointment applied to the infected parts, 

 accompanied by washing with soft soap and warm water. A 

 close clipping of the hair in the infested regions is the safest and 

 quickest method of getting rid of the nits. 



Eradication of body lice is in some respects simpler than that 

 of other lice, since it is the clothes instead of the body which are 

 to be treated. Much work has been done since the outbreak of 

 the war in Europe on testing the effect of various chemicals and 

 methods of treatment on lice. This problem is recognized as 

 one of the most important minor considerations in war. 



The methods usually employed for getting rid of body lice are 

 to sterilize the clothes, either by steam, by fumes of carbon bi- 

 sulphide or sulphur dioxide (if no wool is present), by dry heat of 

 160° F., or by treatment with volatile odorous substances, such as 

 kerosene, naphthaline, ether, anise oil, oil of turpentine, oil of 

 eucalyptus or anisol (methylphenylether). The last is a new 



