580 
Combating Lousiness 
the fol. ed. illustrated by Daniel Vierge. London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1892. [In 
reference to the word lousing, see pp. 144, 164.] 
~x* 
Cases of Melanodermia due to Pediculus humanus. Greenhow (1864, 
p. 226) describes a case: Woman, tramp, aged 65, admitted 3. vi. 1863 
to Middlesex Hospital, in a very dirty state and swarming with vermin. 
Her face became tawny about 2 years previously and some months later 
it became darker and still later her chest and back became brown. On 
admission: face yellow, chest and back deeply bronzed, thighs lighter, 
legs and feet scarcely tinged. She greatly improved in hospital. On 
24 Aug. numerous small patches of normal coloured skin observable on 
chest, bronzing elsewhere fading, the face no longer yellow, hands normal. 
“Even the darkest portion of the surface has, on close inspection, a 
mottled appearance, being interspersed with minute spaces of normal 
skin.” She was evidently recovering from the melanodermia. 
Greenhow (1876, p. 44) records the following case: Man, scavenger, 
aged 60, admitted to Middlesex Hospital 24. xi. 1875; hard drinker, 
dirty and swarming with head and body lice. General body-surface 
dirty bronze coloured, skin rough; the epidermis, on being scratched, 
was raised in furfuraceous scales. Bronzing deepest on sides and back 
of neck, in axillae, on hips, loins, abdomen and chest; less marked on the 
face, hands, arms and legs, at sides of trunk and back of thorax; and, 
across the shoulders, a broad band, extending down to 7th dorsal 
vertebra, was comparatively not tinged; areolae about nipples, penis 
and especially scrotum almost black; small irregular patches of normal 
skin on back of neck; mole-like specks on arms and hands; lips with faint 
dark lines, light brown mottling of mucous membrane of cheeks. 
The patient was given warm alkaline baths, being freely soaped whilst 
in the bath. Improvement (14. i. 1876): bronzing all over still very pro¬ 
nounced on front of body though much paler than on admission, penis 
and scrotum still almost black; patches of normal skin at back of neck 
larger. Colour of face, hands, backs of shoulders practically normal in 
colour. 
Such extreme cases as the two foregoing are rare in England but 
appear to be commoner in Germany (Vogt’s “ Vagabondenkrankheit”). 
* 
A -poet's contribution to the subject, proving that Robert Burns (1759- 
1796) had knowledge of the louse’s ways and haunts and of how to 
circumvent the “blastit wonner.” The short glossary was compiled from 
a Dialect Dictionary. 
