Clinical Notes on Pediculosis

At one of the recent meetings of this Association, the Chairman of the Committee on Statistics, in call- ing attention to the various interesting points that were shown in their report, stated that the number of cases of pediculosis reported from Boston was largely in excess of those from the other sections.An ex- amination of the statistics published in the Transac- tions of this Association for the last nine years shows that this was not only the case during the year referred to, but that the excess has been a constant one.Having looked up the statistics in regard to a class of cases in which I have always been interested I venture to lay before you a few of the results, al- though I fear that, to many of you, the subject will appear unimportant and uninteresting.That practically, however, it is not unimportant, in Boston, at least, is, I think, shown by the fact that, out of 15,551 cases of cutaneous disease recorded on the books of the Department for Skin Diseases at the Boston Dispensary, I find 914, or very nearly 6%, entered as being caused by the presence of one of the three varieties of pediculi.The following table is condensed from the Transac- tions of the Association, and gives the numbers of the three varieties of pediculosis reported during the past nine years, as well as the whole number of cases of cutaneous disease.Table No.I. Statistics of number of cases of Pediculosis reported in the Trans- actions of the American Dermatological Association from 1878 to 1880 inclusive.o ^5 m a £ Cases of Pediculosis 2132 995 320 Cases of skin disease 140070 32578 9J69Per cent, of Pediculosis 5J-34-3J4-A summing up of the nine years shows that the ratio of cases of pediculosis to the whole number of skin affections reported from Boston, is a little less than 5£% ; from New York, a little over 3% ; from Philadelphia, a little over 3J% ; from Baltimore, 2¿% ; from St. Louis, less than \\°]0 \ from Chicago, less than Z°f0 ; and the same ratio from Canada.That is, that Boston reports nearly double the num- ber that the next largest (Philadelphia) does, and almost four times as many as the lowest (St.Louis).An examination of this table shows several interesting points, but I will only refer to the fact that in 1884, New York, out of 2,737 cases of skin disease reported none of pediculosis capillitii, and also that the number of cases of pediculosis pubis reported from Chicago are very nearly, if not quite, equal to those reported