Gr. H. F. Nuttall 
577 
RECOMMENDATIONS. . 
1. Soldiers should be inspected once a week under all circumstances, 
i.e. when on active service or otherwise engaged. The examination should 
be made at the same time as that for scabies. 
2. Men who are found to be verminous should be disinfested as soon 
as possible. 
3. All soldiers should receive a bath once a week or at least once in 
two weeks, the bath being followed by a change of underwear. 
4. Where men are prone to become verminous, disinfestation should 
be practised every two weeks. 
5. Disinfestation should be applied to all of the men who live in close 
association, none being allowed to escape the process. Every article of 
clothing pertaining to each man, including his greatcoat, blankets and 
pack, should receive treatment. Various articles which are the soldier’s 
personal property may harbour vermin, and it should always be re¬ 
membered that not.only crab-lice but also Pediculus may infest the hair 
over different parts of a man’s body. 
6. Bathing should be controlled to see that it is efficiently carried out, 
the men being inspected after the bath and before being allowed to dress. 
7. The larger the number of men who are loused at one time the 
better since there will be fewer verminous companions about through 
contact with whom they may subsequently become re-infested. 
8. As far as circumstances will permit, the cleaned men should be 
kept apart from the unclean. 
9. Soldiers proceeding to the front or returning thence should in each 
case be examined before they are allowed to mix with other men. A single 
lousy individual may infest many others with whom he associates. 
10. The hair should be kept cropped short, especially at the sides and 
back of the head. 
11. The personnel employed in lousing men should be permanent, 
specially instructed, and trustworthy, to ensure efficiency and continuity 
in the established methods of treatment. 
12. The personnel should have unlimited facilities for bathing, be 
subject to inspection and control once a week (as for scabies), and keep 
their hair close cropped. They should wear protective clothing whilst 
engaged in their duties. 
13. The only thoroughly reliable means of destroying lice are by hot 
air and steam. Sulphur dioxide is unreliable, and insecticides as ordinarily 
applied to men are merely palliative because they fail to destroy the nits. 
