oportion of
1 1/2 in 20; and the nobility and burghers in the proportion of two in
30 or 40. In Warsaw and surrounding districts the disease attacked the
first classes in the proportion of one to ten, and in the second
classes one to 30. In Lithuania the same proportions were observed as
in Warsaw; but the disease has gradually grown rarer and rarer to the
present day, although occasional cases are seen even in the United
States.

Plica has always been more frequent on the banks of the Vistula and
Borysthenes, in damp and marshy situations, than in other parts of
Poland. The custom formerly prevailing in Poland of shaving the heads
of children, neglect of cleanliness, the heat of the head-dress, and
the exposure of the skin to cold seem to favor the production of this
disease.

Plica began after an attack of acute fever, with pains like those of
acute rheumatism in the head and extremities, and possibly vertigo,
tinnitus aurium, ophthalmia, or coryza. Sometimes a kind of redness was
observed on the thighs, and there was an alteration of the nails, which
became black and rough, and again, there was clammy sweat. When the
scalp was affected the head was sore to the touch and excessively
itchy. A clammy and agglutinating sweat then occurred over the cranium,
the hair became unctuous, stuck together, and appeared distended with
an adhesive matter of reddish-brown color, believed by many observers
to be sanguineous. The hair was so acutely sensitive that the slightest
touch occasioned severe pain at the roots. A viscid matter of a very
offensive smell, like that of spoiled vinegar, or according to Rayer
like that of mice or garlic, exuded from the whole surface of each
affected hair. This matter glued the hairs together, at first from
their exit at the skin, and then along the entire length; it appeared
to be secreted from the whole surface of the scalp and afterward dried
into an incrustation. If there was no exudation the disease was called
plica sicca. The hair was matted and stuck together in a variety of
ways, so as to resemble ropes (plica multiformis). Sometimes these
masses united together and formed one single thick club like the tail
of a horse (plica caudiformis). Again, and particularly in females, the
hair would become matted and glued together into one uniform intricate
mass of various magnitudes. The hair of the whole body was likely to
be attacked with this disease. Kalschmidt of Jena possessed the pubes