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126
3. Re-infection by the introduction into the family of verminous
second-hand wearing apparel has, I believe, much evidence in its
favour. My attention was drawn to the possibility of this owing
to the fact that during enquiries made by the inspectors as to the
cleanliness of rooms, bedding, &c., in connection with these vermin
ous cases, more than one parent volunteered the statement that
they attributed the unclean condition of their children to the
wearing of certain second-hand articles of clothing which they
discovered soon after purchase to be verminous. In view of the
obvious fact that re-infection was taking place on a large scale
and of the statements of the parents, I decided to investigate the
possibility of second-hand clothing being the cause or a cause of
re-infection. I give below the result of this investigation. For
this purpose I adopted three lines of enquiry, i.e., I endeavoured
to ascertain :—
1. The proportion of verminous children wearing
second-hand clothing.
2. The proportion of non-verminous children wearing
second-hand clothing.
3. By actual examination whether second-hand
clothing is verminous.
1. I endeavoured to find out in the first place, the number and
proportion of those children sent to the cleansing station for baths,
whose parents were in the habit of purchasing second-hand clothing
for their children. This I was able to find out by instiucting each
inspector to make the enquiry of the parent. To my astonishment,
I found that the result of the first enquiries revealed a large proportion
of purchasers of such clothing amongst the parents of verminous
children. In order to get a reliable average, I continued the
eriquiries five months, viz. from the beginning of January to
the end of May, 1914. During this period, I received notices from
the London County Council to inspect premises occupied by 280
families, amongst whom were one or more children infected with