418 
Combating Lousiness 
public baths -were only established in England in 1842-46 and there are 
still many towns unprovided therewith. In short, a great part of the 
population composing so-called civilized nations is living to-day in a 
state of filth that would offend many a savage. 
Care of the Body. 
A weekly hath and change of underclothing is a safeguard against 
infestation with lice under ordinary circumstances. Hot baths and 
Turkish or Russian baths are much to be preferred to cold baths. 
Where a person has been in contact with verminous persons or their 
effects a hot bath with a good soaping and rubbing down followed by a 
complete change of clothing is advisable. 
Anointing the body with oil or fat will doubtless afford a measure of 
protection for the same reason that cosmetics applied to the head have 
been found useful. The objections to oiling the body otherwise than 
moderately are that it impedes evaporation from the skin and soils the 
clothing. Oils and ointments after the bath were already used by the 
ancient Hebrews, and the Romans anointed their bodies with oils and 
pomades (smegmata) at the conclusion of the bath following upon the 
use of the strigillus and rubbing —both of these processes would remove 
ectoparasites. 
Care of the Head. 
The lack of care of the head among the lower classes of the civilian 
population is directly responsible for the great prevalence of head-lice 
among them. As lice chiefly infest persons with long hair, i.e. women and 
young children (see p. 84), these may be considered first. 
In the upper classes head-lice may occasionally be picked up, but 
infestation is on the whole a rare occurrence owing to the care that is 
devoted to the hair by daily combing, brushing and 'periodic washing. 
When lice appear, they are promptly dealt with by the well-to-do 
because their heads undergo what practically amounts to frequent 
inspection during the toilet. Where infestation occurs in such cases, 
it is usually in girls of school age who come in contact with unclean 
persons or pick up stray lice in the manner already described (see pp. 
94 et seq.). In girls of this class, infestation will usually be prevented 
by braiding the hair at school and unbraiding it at home. 
In schools resorted to by children of different classes of society, 
mothers may well be advised to keep the girls’ hair cut short until they 
leave school (Raven, 1907, p. 64), especially if reinfestation occurs at 
intervals in spite of ordinary care and cleanliness applied to the head. 
