51.8 
Combating Lousiness 
In this heterogeneous collection we can still pick out remedies that 
are in use to-day. We see that staveacre, vinegar, oil and tar were used 
1900 years ago, mercury 900 years ago, sulphur, sublimate, essential oils, 
storax and alcohol a long time ago, whilst Moffett advises shaving for 
crab-lice. The use of egg-white for cleansing hair, mentioned by Ardonus, 
still continues. Saffron and oil of radish seem to have been abandoned 
as well as blood and bile. The use of blood may perhaps be traced to the 
statement “For those that breed of man’s bloud will die if you smeare 
them with the bloud of other Creatures.” Bile may have been used 
because it was recorded that lice abandon those with jaundice. 
Of recent authors, we find Stevenson (1905, pp. 1-44) supplying a 
list of remedies against hog-lice compiled from different authors: 3 % 
coal-tar (Peters, 1902), 2 % carbolic acid, benzine, kerosene, whitewash 
(Niles, 1900); sulphuret of potassium (2-4 oz. per gallon of water, 
Yerrill); pyrethrum and kerosene-emulsion (Lugger); kerosene with 
linseed or cottonseed oil (1: 2, Oliver, 1896); staveacre decoction (2 oz. 
to a quart of water, much used in England, and when vinegar is added it 
is stated to destroy nits); 10 % kerosene-emulsion with 3 % creolin 
solution applied every 2 weeks, etc. These remedies are to be applied 
with a broom or spray. 
Brunton (ii. 1915, p. 298) cites from Brunton’s Pharmacology (1885, 
p. 1105): mercury, anise, pyrethrum and staveacre, and (Ibid. 1893): 
chloroform, Cocculus indicus, Dalmatian flowers, essential oils, laurel 
leaves, petroleum and quassia; finally (1915) he refers to white pre¬ 
cipitate ointment (1 : 10) applied to the body or (1 : 5) to the pubis, and 
staveacre ointment as being usually employed in hospitals. Mense, 
Prowazek, Popoff, Marzinowsky and Zucker (1915) list the ordinary 
remedies; the latter holds the original view that strong odours occlude 
the spiracles of lice. Hase (xi. 1915, p. 156) lists 181 remedies that have 
been advocated, many being quack and secret preparations which 
unscrupulous persons have put on the market. Numerous authors 
mention the stock remedies already mentioned. 
Galewsky (hi. 1915, p. 285; v. 1915, p. 652) quotes from other authors 
and records a few unsatisfactory experiments. Nocht and Halberkann 
(1915, p. 627) suggested the use in the trenches of a spraying fluid 
containing oil of turpentine and carbon tetrachloride, etc., but they 
supply no evidence of its efficacy in practice. Swoboda (1915, p. 920) 
gives a fairly long list of remedies, condemning many because of the 
adverse opinions expressed by others. He divides the few remedies he 
