326 
Hermaphroditism etc. in Pediculus 
Total 
Infested with 
Infested with 
verminous 
o/ 
capitis 
O/ 
capitis and corporis 
o/ 
Children, i.e. boys and girls up to 15 years 
/o 
73 
60 
/o 
13 
Women 
90 
55 
35 
Men 
58 
29 
29 
Capitis may occur on the body (alone). It is proved that capitis may occur 
on the body and lay nits upon the body hair; it may become established 
on hairy parts of the breast, in the axillae, or indeed be entirely confined to 
the pubic region (Nuttall, loc. cit. pp. 86, 94, 96). In thirteen women infested 
with head-lice and cursorily examined by Sikora (ix. 1917, pp. 280-282), five 
showed larvae and nits upon the neck and shoulders. In a mild case of 
pediculosis capitis (N. 282) recently observed by one of us (N.), there was 
clear evidence that the insects wandered down the back, almost to the waist, 
by night. We can record three instances of the capture of numerous capitis 
on shirts of East Indians, British Guiana (N. 259, 261, 262). 
Capitis occurs at times with corporis on the body. Several instances of the 
intermingling of capitis and corporis in considerable numbers on man’s body 
have come to our notice in specimens collected for us by trustworthy ento¬ 
mologists abroad: N. 258, from an East Indian, British Guiana; N. 236, from 
beneath a bandage on a negro carrier’s leg, Nairobi, British East Africa; 
N. 237, from several negro patients, Nairobi (the lot comprised 2 herma¬ 
phrodites); N. 277 from a negro (Kikuyu), Nairobi (the lot comprised 2 
hermaphrodites). Dr P. H. Boss, who sent the specimens from Nairobi, states 
that negroes invariably, when ill, sleep with their blankets pulled over their 
heads, a habit, we may add, which would greatly promote the intermingling 
of the two forms of lice, even more indeed than confinement to bed. 
Whilst corporis is rarely found on the head , it has been seen to wander up the 
neck to the base of the head or upon the collar (Nuttall, loc. cit. pp. 83, etc.). 
Corporis has been found infesting the hairy parts of the body and it often 
oviposits on body hair (though, as we know, it occurs mainly on clothing). 
In addition to the evidence already published by Nuttall (xi. 1917, pp. 83, 
91), we would note the following: Semon and Barber (ix. 1917, p. 181) record 
that of 257 cases of pyodermia in soldiers, attributable to pediculosis, no less 
than 190 were found to have corporis nits upon the pubic and axillary hair 
when closely examined. Sikora (ix. 1917, p. 281) records having found many 
nits on hair that had apparently been laid by corporis. Stendal (1917, p. 1374) 
is convinced that the nits laid on man’s bodv-hair lead to the reinfestation of 
«/ 
soldiers that have been bathed. Smith (v. 1918, p. 519) moreover states that 
he confirmed the previous authors’ observations, adding that it is not excep¬ 
tional for corporis to oviposit “on pubic (and occasionally on axillary and 
peri-anal) hair thus defeating the anti-parasitic measures in ordinary use.” 
Lloyd (i. 1919, pp. 42, 85) reports an experiment wherein corporis adults 
were released upon a man’s abdomen (on the skin about the umbilicus), 
