OP THE HtMAN SKIN. 19 



general domain of their ravages tells the derma- 

 tologist what insect he has to deal with. 



In the old days of superstition and credulity, 

 the death of any person specially noted in history 

 was very apt to be attributed by those succeeding 

 them, or those who wrote their history, to the 

 ravages of these several forms of lice, especially 

 this last — the clothes-louse. For instance, Aris- 

 totle relates that the poet Alcmanes, and the 

 Syrian Pherecydes, died of phthiriasis ; i. e., of 

 insects living on the body. Other more recent 

 authors report the same of Herod, Sylla, even 

 Plato, Philip the Second, and so on. However, 

 nowadays, we understand that a person lying in 

 bed sick, unable to move, uncleansed and neglected 

 from superstition or otherwise, will soon attract, 

 from those coming in contact with them, the par- 

 asites that the want of bodily ablution, and igno- 

 rance of a former age, allowed to accumulate till 

 death might be readily attributed to them. In a 

 civilized country, where soap and water, and med- 

 icines which kill these vermin, can be obtained, 

 there is no longer reason or excuse for their pres- 

 ence, as we shall next see. 



