68 
Lice and Disease 
may attain the size of a two-shilling piece, and are accompanied by 
multiple phlegmons. He denies that the condition is merely due to 
Staphylococcus infection, and is inclined to attribute it to the effects 
of the contents of the lice that are crushed upon the fingers. 
Sobel (1913, pp. 656-664) who has had a very large experience of 
pediculosis in school children during 11 years in New York, states that 
head-lice are the indirect cause of pyogenic infection, frequently leading 
to involvement of the lymphatic glands followed by suppuration; lice 
also indirectly cause impetigo contagiosa, dermatitis, furunculosis, 
eczema, and folliculitis. 
Pinkus (1915, pp. 239-241) describes similar sequelae to those men¬ 
tioned by Sobel, adding that some children suffer from head eczema 
throughout the winter, getting well in the summer, this being due to 
the lice that accumulate upon their heads in winter owing to their not 
being washed because of the cold. In summer the hair of the head is 
clipped short. The inflammation of the scalp may lead to falling out 
of the hair. 
Eye disease; de Font Reaulx (1912, pp. 385-387) regards head-lice 
as the cause of phlyctenular conjunctivitis, and cites numerous authors 
in support of his contention. Hudson (1914, p. 966) states that a 
common form of eye-disease, phlyctenular keratitis, prevails among 
Board School children, causing much suffering and corneal scars with 
resultant disabilities. He refers severer cases primarily to head-lice, 
infective material being conveyed from the scalp to the eyes by the 
hands. Improvement, he states, frequently follows the treatment of 
the head for lice, and anti-louse measures, clipping boys’ hair short, etc., 
are obviously indicated. 
Some experiments with pyogenic bacteria, carried out by Widmann 
(28. ix. 1915, pp. 1336-8), may be mentioned here. This author succeeded 
in making lice bite mice in which he had produced Pneumococcus 
septicaemia. He failed to infect a clean mouse by allowing 18 lice to 
bite it 10 hours after they had fed upon infected mouse blood. The 
louse dejecta were infective during the first 24 hours. The cocci were 
confined to the intestinal tract of the louse and they did not multiply 
therein but decreased after 48 hours, and after 60 hours microscopic 
and cultural examinations gave negative results. He also failed to 
transmit Staphylococcus septicaemia by repeated louse bites during 24 
hours after the insects had sucked infected blood; a few living cocci 
were recovered from the louse excreta after 60 hours but not later. 
