436 
Combating Lousiness 
and inside out, the articles being afterwards beaten and brushed. How 
long the clothes will have to be exposed will depend on the degree of heat. 
In really hot dry climates the insects and their nits would probably be 
dead in a few hours. In cooler climates the exposure would have to be 
repeated on several successive days; a guide to the efficacy of the treat¬ 
ment would consist in the shrivelling of the nits and the decrease in the 
numbers of active lice 1 . 
A long familiar way of destroying lice by dry heat consists in the use 
of the hot flat-iron. It has been used on occasion in the armies of all the 
countries engaged in the present war. The larger the iron used the better 
for the purpose, tailor’s irons being the best. The irons may either be 
self-heating or ordinary ones heated in any convenient manner. The 
adjoining illustration (Fig. 1) depicts a stove suitable for heating many 
irons at a time, the figure being taken from a sketch contained in 
Lieutenant Peacock’s MS. Report, W.O. i. 1918. 
Fig. 1. Stove used for heating flat-irons. (A) viewed from the side and partly in section; 
showing the irons resting on top and on a ledge running along three sides. (B) viewed 
from one end. (Peacock MS.) 
Ironing may be conveniently employed in cases where the infested 
clothing cannot be changed ; it should if possible be applied once a week 
to all underclothing, uniforms, etc., special attention being paid to the 
seams, which should be turned back whilst the iron is run along them. 
Hot ironing does not shrink clothing and improves its appearance 2 . 
1 Shipley (1914, pp. 497-9) states that sun-light kills lice, and that soldiers in the South 
African war turned their clothes inside out and hand-picked them in the sun, one of them 
describing the procedure thus: “We strips and we picks ’em off and places ’em in the sun, 
and it kind ’o breaks the little beggars ’earts.” I apologize for adding that the effect of 
the sun’s heat will usually be largely one of desiccation, the effect on lice corresponding to 
that which converts grapes into raisins. 
2 A dozen flat-irons are reckoned as necessary per battalion by Moor and Cooper, 1918, 
p. 55. 
