Treatment. —Hebra advises the following treatment. A mixture of 3 ounces common petroleum, 1 ounce olive-oil, and 2i drachms balsam of Peru is made, and the hair treated with it down to the very roots every hour for a considerable number of hours. The head is covered with a flannel cap. After 24 or 48 hours, when the lice and their eggs will all be destroyed by the petroleum, the head is to be thoroughly washed with soap and water. The oil not only kills the animals, but also loosens the scabs, and the washing should remove them all. Matted hair is to be combed out by careful and patient combing, beginning at the ends of the hair. If an inflamed condition of head remains it should be treated as directed for eczema. The nits, though killed, are not removed by this method. To remove them, bathe the hair with vinegar and water. This softens their sheaths. After wards they are removed by fine-toothed combs.
In milder cases, where no scabs have been formed, and where all that is desired is the destruction of the lice, which are easily got at, it is sufficient to rub well into the hair some ointment of mercury, such as the blue ointment, or the red precipitate ointment.
The body-louse or clothes' louse resembles the head-louse, but is larger and more active. It is never met with on the head or hairy parts. It lives not on the skin, but in the folds of the clothing, whence it only sallies out to seek nourishment, obtained by piercing the surface layers of the skin and sucking.
Symptoms. —The irritation of the insect's bite produces a red spot, in the centre of which is a minute purplish speck, due to escape of blood. Severe itching is occasioned, and as the spot is slightly raised above the surface it is torn by the nails and bleeds. Scratches covered
with blood-crusts are thus produced. Various other kinds of eruptions may be caused, blis ters, pustules, scabs, &c. Where the itching and scratching have gone on for a long time, the constant redness of the skin excited thereby leads to a darkening of the colour, most pro nounced on the neck, wrist, and buttocks. In extreme cases boils and ulcers are produced. In spite of such signs, supplying unmistakable evidence of the presence of lice, if the person be stripped not a single animal may be found on his body, because they hide themselves in the folds of the clothing.
The treatment for body-louse consists in removing the garments in which the parasites lie hid. To kill them and their eggs they should be ironed with very hot irons, the folds and creases of the clothing being ironed over specially time after time. The sores on the body should be treated by simple dressings.
The crab-louse (Fig. 170) or pubic louse is flatter, broader, and shorter than the other forms. It lives chiefly in the hairy parts at the lower part of the abdomen—the pubic region,—but may be found on the arm pits, among the hairs of the breast, &c., but never on the head.
It grasps the hairs firmly with its front feet, making its re moval difficult. The nits are fixed on the hair quite close to the skin.
Symptoms.—Itching is less severe than in the case of the head or body louse, but a pimply eruption may be induced.
Treatment is commonly by blue ointment of mercury. It is, however, apt to excite inflam mation of the skin, and must, therefore, be cautiously used.