Page:The physical training of children (IA 39002011126464.med.yale.edu).pdf/249

 be already lice on the head, in addition to the regular washing every morning with the soap and water, and after the head has been thoroughly dried, let the hair be well and plentifully dressed with camphorated oil—the oil being allowed to remain on until the next washing on the following morning. Lice cannot live in oil (more especially if, as in camphorated oil, camphor be dissolved in it), and as the camphorated oil will not, in the slightest degree, injure the hair, it is the best application that can be used. But as soon as the vermin have disappeared, let the oil be discontinued, as the natural oil of the hair is, at other times, the only oil that is required on the head. The "nit"—the egg of the louse—might be distinguished from scurf (although to the naked eye it is very much like it in appearance) by the former fastening firmly on one of the hairs as a barnacle would on a rock, and by it not being readily brushed off as scurf would, which latter (scurf) is always loose. 254. My child, in the summer time, is much tormented with fleas: what are the best remedies?

A small muslin bag, filled with camphor, placed in the cot or bed, will drive fleas away. Each flea-bite should, from time to time, be dressed by means of a camel's-hair brush, with a drop or two of spirit of camphor, an ounce bottle of which ought, for the purpose, to be procured from a chemist. Camphor is also an excellent remedy to prevent bugs from biting. Bugs and fleas have a horror of camphor; and well they might, for it is death to them!

There is a famous remedy for the destruction of fleas, manufactured in France, entitled "La Poudre Insecticide," which, although perfectly harmless to the human economy, is utterly destructive to fleas. Bugs are best destroyed by oil of turpentine; the places they do love to congregate in should be well saturated, by means of a brush,