of a woman dead of plica, the hair of which was of such length that it
must have easily gone around the body. There was formerly a
superstition that it was dangerous to cut the hair until the discharge
diminished. Lafontaine, Schlegel, and Hartman all assure us that the
section of the affected masses before this time has been known to be
followed by amaurosis, convulsions, apoplexy, epilepsy, and even death.
Alarmed or taught by such occurrences, the common people often went
about all their lives with the plica gradually dropping off. Formerly
there was much theorizing and discussion regarding the etiology and
pathology of plica, but since this mysterious affection has been proved
to be nothing more than the product of neglect, and the matting due to
the inflammatory exudation, excited by innumerable pediculi,
agglutinating the hair together, the term is now scarcely mentioned in
dermatologic works. Crocker speaks of a rare form which he entitles
neuropathic plica, and cites two cases, one reported by Le Page whose
specimen is in the Royal College of Surgeons Museum; and the other was
in a Hindoo described by Pestonji. Both occurred in young women, and in
both it came on after washing the hair in warm water, one in a few
minutes, and the other in a few hours. The hair was drawn up into a
hard tangled lump, impossible to unravel, limited to the right side in
Le Page's patient, who had very long hair, and in Pestonji's case to
the back of the head, where on each side was an elongated mass, very
hard and firm, like a rope and about the size of the fist. There was no
reason to believe that it was ascribable to imposture; the Hindoo woman
cut the lumps off herself and threw them away. Le Page found the most
contracted hairs flattened. Stellwagon reports a case of plica in a
woman. It occupied a dollar-sized area above the nape of the neck, and
in twelve years reached the length of 12 feet. There was no history of
its manner of onset.

Tinea nodosa is a name given by Morris and Cheadle to a case of nodular
growth on the beard and whiskers of a young man. In a case noticed by
Crocker this disease affected the left side of the mustache of a
medical man, who complained that the hair, if twisted up, stuck
together. When disintegrated the secretion in this case seemed to be
composed of fungous spores. Epithelium fragments, probably portions of
the internal root-sheath, sometimes adhere to the shaft of the hair as
it grows up, and