Salt Lake Telegram | 1937-12-07 | Page 6 | Health Advice

HEALTH . ADVICE By Dr. Morris Fishbein Editor, Journal of tfie American Mttt-e.l Mttt-e.l AtMciatiee This is the fifth In a aeries by Dr. Fishbein in which he discusses dis-cusses parasites which live on and irritate the human body. From the very earliest times - human beings have suffered with parasites which attach themselves to the body and bring about changes in the tissues Among the writings of the ancients, there are frequent references to body lice. Those which live on the head are usually gray but incline to be of the same color as the hair which they frequent. Those which lire on the body are a little larger the females being even a little larger than the males. The eyes of both kinds are quite black and prominent. Those which live on the body are likely to be of a light gray color until they fill themselves with blood. Like other parasites, lire become lazy and indolenf. after they have fed themselves. Body lice which live In the lower parts of the abdomen are more nearly the length of those which live on the head. They are .juppleil with. .leg3thatare like claws and stick much tighter thnn those elsewhere. The eggs laid by these annoying Inhabitants of the human body are little, white bodies, oval in shape, which are glued to the hairs by a sticky substance. The productivity productiv-ity of this particular insect is tremendous. tre-mendous. A female can produce 90 eggs in six days so that in eight weeks, one will have produced a total of 8000 descendant. Presence of parasites on tha scalp usually Is associated with itching and Irritation. Because of the Itching there is a great deal of scratching, sometimes drawing blood and developing . - 11-1 VI I A ...,- appear there is the possibility of infection. Finally the hairs become be-come matted and the whole acalp U affected if the condition is neglected. It is important to detect this condition because it has a tendency tenden-cy to spread, particularly among children. Various types of application! may be applied to destroy these parasites. Moat of the preparations prepara-tions are derivatives of petrolatum. petrola-tum. They are applied to the scalp, well rubbed in, covered with a towel for 12 hours or overnight. over-night. Next day the scalp is thoroughly thor-oughly washed with a good soap and hot water. If this treatment does not serve to destroy the eggs or nits, they may be destroyed by the application applica-tion of strong alcoholic solution. Everybody knows about the use of a fine comb for this purpose. NEXT: More about body Uce.