A Brief History of Plica Polonica
(Revised:
01-03-08)
DEFINITION: “Uncommonly, in
patients who are heavily infested (with lice) and untreated, the
hair becomes tangled with exudates, predisposing the area to
fungal infection and results in a malodorous mass known as
Plica Polonica. Numerous lice nits are found under the matted
hair mass.” [Guenther et al., 2005] Plica Polonica can develop as
a result of an immune response of the human body to head lice
bites.[Gwadz, 2003]
6900-6300 BC In Israel, the
Neolithic cave named ‘Nahal Hemar’, which is 14C dated
to 6900-6300 BC, contained a mummy with matted hair and lice eggs.
[Zias and Mumcuoglu, 1991]
c. 3000 BC “Medusa’s images
in Old Europe began several thousand years prior to her
reinvention in classical Greek myth.” [Le Van, 1995]
“The
disease (plica polonica) is further stated to have been known to
the ancients, and the heads of the Gorgons and Medusa are said to
have been mere mythical representations of this form of disease.”
[Kuchenmeister, 1857]
1600 BC “ … In the late
bronze age of Minoan Crete, (1600 BC) … (Medusa) … is represented
as the refined serpent-goddess-priestess.” [Le Van. 1996]
<113 BC “The Cimbrians
were described by Roman writers as a people with similar medusa
heads (that is, infected with plica polonica), …” [Kuchenmeister,
1857]
10th Century
“Ibrahim ibn Jakub mentions in the 10th century that
the majority of the Slavs suffered from skin rashes and swellings.
Also al-Masudi notes that diseases of the skin and of the hair
were of frequent occurrence among them.” [Grmek, 1959]
1000-1250 AD A male Chiribaya
mummy [#802-1371] from southern Peru “exhibited hair that was
matted in scab-like material and perhaps was badly affected by
lice.”[Reinhard, 2003] In the Chiribaya culture, “Men had a higher
infestation prevalence than women. This is because men more
commonly had elaborate hair styles that covered the scalp in
braids.”
5th – 15th
Cent. “In the middle ages, Plica Polonica was known under a
variety of local names: either ‘mahrenlocke’, ‘elfklatte’, ‘wichtelzopf’,
‘alpzopf’, ‘drutenzopf’, ‘drutenfuss’, ‘maerenvoet’, ‘sellentost’,
or ‘selkensteert (selkin’s tail) in Lower Saxony; ‘marelok’ in
Denmark; either ‘elflocks’ or ‘elvish knots’ in England;
‘saellocke’ in Thuringia; and ‘weichselzopf’ (Vistula-Plait) in
Poland.” [Grimm, 1850] ‘Marenzopf’ was also used in Germany.
[Croker, 1828] “Dreadlocks (convolution et contricatio
capillorum firmissima) formed the diagnostic sign of a disease
called trichoma, plica polonica (Latin), kottun (Polish), and
Weichsel- or Hexenzopf (‘witchplait’; German)” [Forstl and Elliger,
1995]
c. 1285 “The greater
numbers of writers fix the date of its [Plica Polonica]
appearance in Poland at about the year 1285, under the reign of
Lezekle-Noir.”[Gould & Pyle, 1910]
1287 Diderot’s
Encyclopedie of 1765 states that Plica Polonica
appeared in Poland in 1287, under the reign of Lescus the
black. [Diderot, 1765] “Plica Polonica, the unsightly
disease of matted hair, was introduced into Poland by the Mongol
invasion (1287).” [Garrison, 1913] Other authorities claim that
P. Polonica was not of Tartar origin, and that this was a
misinterpretation of the old writers. [Brierre de Boismont, 1883]
1325 A Bohemian MS
of 1325 lists various superstitious formulas for the cure of
Plica Polonica:
“In Podlachia the ‘elftuft’ is
solemnly cut off at Easter time and buried. In the Skwina district
about Cracow, it is partially cropped with red hot shears, a piece
of copper money tied up in it, and thrown into the ruins of an old
castle in which evil spirits lodge; but whoever does this must not
look around, but hasten home as fast as he can.” [Zakrzewski,
1830] [Grimm, 1850]
1554 Cromerius
noted that plica polonica had been prevalent in Poland during the
late Middle Ages and Renaissance. [Cromerius, 1554] [Forstl and
Elliger, 1995]
c. 1594 William
Shakespeare [1564-1616] wrote “Romeo and Juliet” in which Mercutio
declaims in act 1, Scene IV:
“This is that very (Queen) Mab
that plats the manes of horses in the night,
And bakes [?cakes] the ‘elflocks’ in foul sluttish hairs,
Which once untangled, much misfortune bodes.”[Brewer, 1898]
In
Shakespeare’s “King Lear,” Edgar declaims in Act II, Scene III:
“Blanket my loins: elf all my
hair in knots” (mat together my hair in elf-locks)
1599 Thomas Lodge
(c. 1558-1625) was an English dramatist and writer of the
Elizabethan and Jacobean periods. [(Lodge) Wikipedia, 2007]
“Lodge in his Wit’s Miserie, 1599, describing a devil whom
he names Brawling-Contention, says ‘his haires are curled
and full of elves locks, and nitty for want of kembing.’”
[Furness, 1871]
1599 Staringelius,
the rector of the University of Zamosc, was the first polish
physician who wrote about plica polonica. [Staringelius, 1599] [Forstl
and Elliger, 1995]
17th Cent. “In
the early 17th century people started to associate the
Polish plait (Plica Polonica) with disease, but believed it
was only an external symptom of an internal illness. A growing
plait was supposed to take the illness “out” of the body, and was
therefore it was rarely cut off; in addition, the belief that a
cut off plait could avenge itself and bring an even greater
illness discouraged some from attacking it. It was also believed
that casting a magic spell on someone could cause the person to
develop a Polish plait.
These
convictions were so widespread and strong that many people lived
their whole lives with a Polish plait. A plait could sometimes
grow very long – even up to 80 cm (over 30 inches). Polish plaits
could take various forms, from a ball of hair to a long tail.
Plaits were even characterized in a quite sophisticated way; there
were plaits ‘male’ and ‘female’, ‘inner’ and ‘outer’, ‘proper’ and
‘parasitical’.”[Anon., 2005]
1600 Hercules
Saxonia (Ercole Sassonia, 1551 – 1607) wrote a treatise on
Plica Polonica. [Leibowitz and Ullmann, 1965]
<1610 “Hercules de
Saxonia and Thomas Minadous, in 1610, speak of plica as a
disease already long known.” [Gould and Pyle, 1910]
c. 1610 Plica
Polonica mostly affected the peasantry, but it was not unusual
among the higher social classes. For example: King Christian IV of
Denmark (1577-1648) was afflicted with it. [Anon., 2005]
1615 Johan
Agricola (1589-1643), a German doctor, wrote a short Latin essay
titled: “De Helotide sive Plica Polonica.”[Agricola, 1615]
1616 William
Browne (1590 – 1645), a British poet, published the second part of
his Britannia’s Pastorals, in which he wrote:
“So broad her mouth was: as
she stood and cride,
She tore her elvish knots of hayre, as blacke
And full of dust as any collyer's sacke..” [Browne, 1616]
1623 “The Plica
Polonica was supposed to be the operation of wicked elves;
whence the clotted hair was called elf-locks and
elf-knots. Thus Edgar (in The Tragedy of King Lear)
talks of ‘elfing all his hair in knots.’” [Furness,
1871]
c. 1650 Parochial
hospices, supported mainly by the Catholic Church, were maintained
in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania during the second half of the 17th
century. “Medical service was minimal, (and) most inhabitants had
an illness called plica polonica (koltun).” [Kamuntaviviene,
1999]
1655 Ibn Sallum (Salih
ibn Nasr Allah), a Syrian physician at the Ottoman court of Sultan
Ahmed III, translated extracts of medical treatises written in
Latin by contemporary European physicians. He described, for the
first time in Arabic, the East European epidemic of plica
polonica. [Sallum, 1655]
1660 William
Davison, the physician to the Polish king John Casimir and the
queen Marie Louise, wrote that plica polonica was due
solely to uncleanliness and lack of care of hair. [Fronczak, 1898]
1665 Robert Hooke
(who first published a micrograph of a louse) examined human hair
under a microscope and noted:
“…. many have believed and
asserted the Hairs of a man’s head to be hollow, like so many
small pipes perforated from end to end. ….from the Polonian
disease one may believe them such, yet I think we have not the
least encouragement to either from the Microscope, much
less positively to assert them such. And perhaps the very essence
of the Plica Polonica may be the hairs growing hollow, and
of unnatural constitution.” [Hooke, 1665]
1686 Sir Thomas
Browne (1605-1682) wrote “Letter to a Friend,” which was included
in a collected edition of his works published in 1686. A footnote
states:
“Plica or gluey locks
happen to both sexes, and being cut off
will come again. But they are wary
of cutting off the same, for
fear of headache and other
Diseases.”[Wilkin, 1862]
1699 Ambrose
Stegmann wrote “Miscellanea curiosa sive Ephemeridum …” in
which plica polonica is called “De plica Judaeorum”. [Stegmann,
1699]
18th Cent. “In
the 18th Century it became commonplace to mention the
illness that was regarded as the direct cause of death. At first
the list of illnesses to choose from was not very long. First
came phtisis, consumption; next was hidropis,
dropsy; then paraliz, paralysis; pytocie, i.e.,
pustules (scarlet fever, smallpox, or the like); finally plica
polonica, plica.” [Dworzaczek, 1959]
1707 Tobias Cohen
(1652-1759), a Russian-Jewish physician, (Also known as: Toviah
Kohn or Toviah Cohen or Toviah Katz, or Tobiasz Kohn), served as
the physician-in-ordinary to five successive Sultans in
Adrianople, Turkey. [Raisin, 1913] In 1707 Cohen published
Ma’aseh tuviyyah (The work of Toviah). “This was one of the
most influential textbooks in science and medicine published in
Hebrew during the Early Modern period.” [Lepicard, 2003] This
book provided the one of the first medical accounts of plica
polonica. [Raisin, 1913] [Leibowitz and Ullmann, 1965]
“He (Toviah) indicated that the
plica polonica is the result of a lack of cleanliness and
inappropriate hygiene of the hair. Indeed, the individuals
affected with the disease did not wash, clean and comb their hair
even once a year. This practice resulted in infection of the root
of the hair and thrombosis of the superficial veins. Toviah
provided preventive measures as well as remedies for this
condition.” [Massry et al., 1999]
1724 Macklus
Stefan wrote a dissertation on plica polonica at Halae. [Estreicher,
1908] [Roy, 1830]
1724 Hieronymus
Ludolf wrote a dissertation on plica polonica [Ludolf, 1724]
1728 The first two
volumes of Chambers’s Cyclopaedia were published in 1728.
The editor was Ephraim Chambers (1680 – 1740). He noted that:
“The
Hairs, examined by the Microscope, appear to be fistulous
Bodies like Horns. Their tubulous Structure is confirm’d from the
Disease call’d ‘Plica Polonica’ wherein the Blood oozes out
of their Extremities.” [Chambers, 1728a]
“PLICA, in Medicine, a Disease
of the Hair, peculiar to Poland, and hence denominated
Polonica, tho’ there are instances of it in Hungary,
Alsatia, Switzerland, &c. See Hair.
The Plica is a severe,
malignant, and dangerous Disease, wherein the Hair of the Head is
matted and glu’d together beyond all Posibility of being
extricated; attended with a grievous Disorder of all of the Limbs
of the Body; and before the Hair become complicated, a violent
Pain; a Sweat usually attending it.
An
unseasonable cutting off of the Hair in this Case is dangerous;
nor is there any proper and adequate Remedy for the Disease yet
discovered.” [Chambers, 1728b]
1736 Mareincowski
wrote: “Bemerkungen uber die Geschichte und Natur des
Weichselzopfs,” [Mareincowski, 1736]
1739 Michael
Scheiba wrote a dissertation on plicae pathologica (Juden-Zopff,
Koltun) [Scheiba, 1739]
1765 The 12th
volume of Encyclopedie, ou dictionnaire raisonne des sciences,
des arts et des metiers (Encyclopedia, or a systematic
dictionary of the sciences, arts, and crafts) was published in
Paris in 1765. It noted that in Poland, Plica Polonica is
called either gozdziec, gwozdziec or koltum.
1770 J. Seisser
wrote a dissertation on Plica Polonica at Vienna [Roy, 1830]
1776 In 1776,
Joseph Jacob Plenck (1738 – 1807) wrote De Morbis Cutaneis,
an early book on dermatology in which Plica Polonica was
discussed. [Panconesi, 1995]
1780 János Samuel
Gabriel wrote a dissertation on plica polonica at Pestini (modern
Budapest). [Gyory, 1900]
1786 Hester Lynch
Thrale (1741 –1821) wrote Observations and reflections made in
the course of a journey through France, Italy and Germany. She
describes a Polish plait she saw in 1786 in the collection of the
Elector of Saxony in Dresden. “The size and the weight of it was
enormous, its length four yards and a half [about 4.1 m]; the
person who was killed by its growth was a Polish lady of quality
well known in king Augustus’s court.” [(Polish plait) Wikipedia,
2007]
1787 Dr. Vicat, a
Swiss physician long resident in Poland, wrote Memoire fur la
Plique Polonoise. An abstract of this treatise was published
in English in 1787. [Vicat, 1787] “… the Plica Polonica
is supposed to proceed from an acrid viscous humor penetrating
into the hair, which is tublar; it then exudes either from its
sides or extremities, and clots the whole together, either in
separate folds, or in one undistinguished mass. (The dilation of
the hair is sometimes so considerable as to admit small globules
of blood; this circumstance, which however rarely happens, has
probably given rise to the notion, that the patient, if his hair
is cut off, bleeds to death.)” The symptoms of Plica,
“…more or less violent, according to the constitution of the
patient, or malignity of the disease, are itchings, swellings,
eruptions, ulcers, intermitting fevers, pains in the head,
languor, lowness of spirits, rheumatism, gout, and sometimes even
convulsions, palsy, and madness. These symptoms gradually decrease
as the hair becomes affected. If the patient is shaved in the
head, he relapses into all of the dreadful complaints, which
preceded the eruption of the Plica; and he continues to
labour under them, until a fresh growth of hair absorbs the acrid
humour. This disorder is thought to be hereditary; it is proved to
be contagious when in a virulent state… Persons of higher rank are
less subject to this disorder than those of inferior stations: the
inhabitants of large towns than those of small villages; the free
peasants than those in an absolute state of vassalage; the natives
of Poland proper than those of Lithuania. … In a word, the
Plica Polonica appears to be a contagious distemper; which,
like the leprosy, still prevails among a people ignorant in
medicine, and inattentive to check its progress; but is rarely
known in those countries, where proper precautions are taken to
prevent its spreading.”
1801 Erasmus
Darwin (1731 – 1802) was an English physician, poet, natural
philosopher, and the grandfather of Charles Darwin. [(Erasmus
Darwin) Wikipedia, 2007] He wrote in “Zoonomia” that Plica
Polonica was: “A contagious disease, in which the hair is said to
become alive and bleed, forming inextricable knots or plaits of
great length, like the fabled head of Medusa, with intolerable
pain, so as to confine the sufferer on his bed for years.”
[Darwin, 1801]
1801 Johann
Christoph Adelung (1732 – 1806), a German grammarian and
philologist, wrote in his German dictionary that the Weichsel-Zopf
(Vistula-Plait) was also known as ‘Judenzopf’, ‘Alpzopf’.
Alpklatte’, Mahrenklatte’, ‘Martofva’, ‘Nieders’, ‘Elfklatte’ and
‘Sellkensteert’ (in Hannover). He noted that it was epidemic in
Poland, lesser Tartary, and Hungary. [Adelung, 1801] [(Johann
Christoph Adelung) Wikipedia, 2007]
1806 “Schlegel
(1806) reviewed the literature (on plica polonica) of the previous
200 years and listed 136 papers, dissertations and monographs from
different authors… Schlegel
wrote that trichoma had a lethality of 5%, leaving 45% of the
affected crippled and with 50% making a full recovery. He felt
that trichoma was the true cause of up to 32 000 of 55 000 deaths
per year. The estimated prevalence was 1:10 to 1: 30 ...”
[Schlegel, 1806] [Forstl
and Elliger, 1995]
1808 Hoffman
reported that plica polonica was “… endemic in Poland and
seldom, if ever, observed in any other part of Europe. … Besides
the human species, other animals are subject to this complaint. It
appears in some of the finest horses in Poland,” [Hoffman, 1808]
1808 F. L. de La
Fontaine, Aulic Counsellor and Surgeon to the King, wrote: “…
Plica Polonica, a disease endemic in Poland, and its neighboring
countries, in which morbid matter is critically deposited upon the
hair, and binds it together in such a manner, that to unravel it
is impossible. Experience shows, that it is contagious, and very
often congenital. There is no certainty where it first arose; the
Arabians, Greeks and Romans, do not mention it; but some modern
(19th Century) writers make the date of its origin,
1387, and add, that it came from Tartary.”
“… antimony is a specific in
this disease. … The lycopodium is praised by old physicians as a
specific; but unjustly. … Against the vermin, hair powder rubbed
with mercury is the best remedy. If all these means be inadequate
to produce the crisis, inoculations of the disease will often
effect it. It is performed by putting on a cap which has just been
worn by one who has had a recent plica. … After a complete crisis,
the plica separates from the head, and remains attached only by
sound hair. … if it has become dry, and all symptoms have ceased,
it may be cut off. On the contrary, if recent, and the symptoms
still continue, its removal is attended with great hazard, often
inducing other violent diseases.” [De La Fontaine, 1808]
1815 Richard
Bright [1789-1858], who later provided a classical clinical
description of nephritis and the nephrotic syndrome [Bright’s
disease], traveled in 1814-16 to Hungary and published his
observations in 1818. He found that the hygiene of the peasants
was very low. Many of them demonstrated Plica Polonica.
Describing one peasant, Bright noted:
“To add, indeed, to the filthy
appearance of this figure he was afflicted with that unseemly
disease, known by the name of ‘Plica Polonica,’ in which the hair
grows so matted that it is impossible to detangle it, and it
becomes actually felted into balls, which from an unfounded
apprehension of bad consequences, the peasants are very unwilling
to have removed.” [Rooney, 1989]
150 years later, Plica Polonica
was still prevalent in Hungary. [Mozer, 1995]
1817 Charles Gasc
wrote an article on plica polonica which won a prize offered by
the Medical Society of Paris. He noted that plica polonica was due
to uncleanliness. [Gasc, 1817]
1822
Sir John Russell, an English traveler, wrote that: … “Cracow may
be considered the centre of that singular and revolting disease,
the Weichselzopf or Plica Polonica. It derives its
name from its most prominent symptom, the entangling of the hair
into a confused mass. It is generally preceded by violent
headaches, and tingling in the ears ; it attacks the bones and
joints, and even the nails of the toes and fingers, which split
longitudinally; I saw such furrows on the nails of a person twelve
years after his complete cure. If so obstinate as to defy
treatment, it ends in blindness, deafness, or in the most
melancholy distortions of the limbs, and sometimes in all these
miseries together. The most extraordinary part of the disease,
however, is its action on the hair. The individual hairs begin to
swell at the root, and to exude a fat, slimy substance, frequently
mixed with suppurated matter, which is the most noisome feature of
the malady. Their growth is, at the same time, more rapid, and
their sensibility greater, than in their healthy state; and,
notwithstanding the incredulity with which it was long received,
it is now no longer doubtful, that, where the disease has reached
a high degree of malignity, not only whole masses of the hair, but
even single hairs, will bleed if cut off, and that, too,
throughout their whole length, as well as at the root. The hairs,
growing rapidly amidst this corrupted moisture, twist themselves
together inextricably, and at last are plaited into a confused,
clotted, disgusting-looking- mass. Very frequently they twist
themselves into a number of separate masses like ropes, and there
is an instance of such a Zopf growing to the length of fourteen
feet on a lady's head, before it could be safely cut off.
Sometimes they assume other forms, which medical writers have
distinguished by specific names, such as, the Bird's-Nest Plica,
the Turban Plica, the Medusa-Head Plica, the Long-tailed Plica,
the Club-shaped Plica, &c. The hair, however, while thus suffering
itself, seems to do so merely from contributing to the cure of the
disease, by being the channel through which the corrupted matter
is carried off from the body. From the moment that the hair begins
to entangle itself, the preceding symptoms always diminish, and
frequently disappear entirely ; and the patient is comparatively
well, except that he must submit to the inconvenience of bearing
about with him this disgusting head-piece. Accordingly, where
there is reason to suspect that a Weichselzopf is forming itself,
medical means are commonly used to further its out-breaking on the
head, as the natural progress, and only true cure of the disease.
Among the peasants, the same object is pursued by increased filth
and carelessness, and even by soaking the hair with oil or rancid
butter. After the hair has continued to grow thus tangled and
noisome for a period, which is in no case fixed, it gradually
becomes dry; healthy hairs begin to grow up under the plica, and,
at last, “push it from its stool.” In the process of separation,
however, it unites itself so readily with the new hairs, that, if
not cut off at this stage, it continues hanging for years, an
entirely foreign appendage to the head. There are many instances
of Poles who, suffering under poignant ailments, which were, in
reality, the forerunners of an approaching Weicftselzopf, have in
vain sought aid, in other countries, from foreign physicians, and,
on their return, have found a speedy, though a very disagreeable
cure, in the breaking out of the plica. But till the plica has run
through all its stages, and has begun of itself to decay, any
attempt to cut the hair is attended with the utmost danger to the
patient; for it not only affects the body by bringing on
convulsions, cramps, distortion of the limbs, and frequently
death, but the imprudence has often had madness for its result;
and, in furl., during the whole progress of the disease, the mind
is, in general, affected no less than the body. Yet for a long
time, to cut off the hair was the first step taken on the approach
of the disease. People were naturally anxious to get rid of its
most disgusting symptom, and they ascribed the melancholy effects
that uniformly followed, not to the removal of the hair, but
merely to the internal malady, on which this removal had no
influence; and medical men bad not yet learned that this was the
natural outlet of the disease. Even towards the end of the last
century, some medical writers of Germany still maintained that the
hair should instantly be cut; but the examples in which blindness,
distortion, death, or insanity, has been the immediate consequence
of the operation, are much too numerous to allow their theoretical
opinion any weight. The only known cure is to allow the hair to
grow till it begins to rise pure and healthy from the skin, an
appearance which indicates that the malady is over. The hair is
then shaved off, and the cure is generally complete,, although
there are cases in which the disease has been known to return. The
length of time during which the head continues in this state of
corruption, depends entirely on the degree of malignity of the
disease. … The Weichselzopf, at once a painful, a dangerous and a
disgusting disease, is not confined to the human species ; it
attacks horses, particularly in the hairs of the mane, dogs, oxen,
and even wolves and foxes. Although more common among the poorer
classes, it is not peculiar to them, for it spares neither rank,
nor age, nor sex. Women, however, are said to be less exposed to
it than men, and fair hair less than brown or black hair. It is
contagious, and moreover, may become hereditary. In Cracow, there
is a family, the father of which had the Weichselzopf, but seemed
to be thoroughly cured; he married shortly afterwards, and his
wife was speedily subjected to the same frightful visitation; and,
of three children whom she bore to him, every one has inherited
the disease. Among professional persons, great diversity of
opinion prevails regarding its origin and nature. According to
some, it is merely the result of filth and bad diet; but, although
it certainly is more frequent among the classes who are exposed to
these miseries, particularly among the Jews, whose beards it
sometimes attacks as well as their locks, it is by no means
confined to them; the most wealthy and cleanly are not exempt from
its influence: of this I saw many instances in Cracow. Others,
again, allowing that it is much aggravated by uncleanliness and
insalubrious food, set it down as epidemic, and seek its origin in
some particular qualities of the air or water of the country, just
as some have sought the origin of goitres; but, though more common
in Poland than elsewhere, it is likewise at home in Livonia, and
some other parts of Russia, and, above all, in Tartary, from
whence, in fact, it is supposed to have been first imported,
during the Tartar invasion in the end of the thirteenth century. A
third party has made it a modification of leprosy. The more
ignorant classes of the people believe that it is a preservative
against all other diseases, therefore adorne themselves with an
inoculated Weichselzopf.” [Russell, 1828]
1827 Pierre
Francois O. Rayer (1793 – 1867), was a member of the Acadmie Royal
de Medicine and the founder of the first French journal on
dermatology. He is known as the discoverer of Anthrax, Rayer’s
disease, Rayer’s nodules, and that equine glanders can also be
fatal to humans. [(Pierre Rayer) Wikipedia, 2007] In 1827 he
published Traite Theorique et Pratique des Maladies de la Peau.
He noted that Plica Polonica was also known as plicatio, plicatura,
trachoma, and Rayer, 1827]
1828 Hufeland’s
Journal reported a case in which for 10 weeks a woman had
violent headaches which disappeared when a complete Plica Polonica
was formed. [LMG, 1828]
1828 Dr. Samuel
Hahnemann (1755 – 1843) wrote in The Chronic Diseases that:
“ … the efficacy of the herb Lycopodium, (was) much praised in
Poland for (curing) the plica polonia … (Koltun, Trichiasis)
commonly found in Poland and Carinthia.” [Hahnemann, 1828] Ninety
years later, Lycopodium, the spores of Lycopodium clavatum,
was still listed in the 1918 Dispensary of the U.S.,
but had fallen into complete desuetude. [Moore, 2007]
1834 Dr. Marcinkowski wrote: “It is only in books
that we find fantastical descriptions of hairs bleeding when cut,
and being endued with extraordinary sensibility.” [Brierre de
Boismont, 1883]
1834 Jozsef
Oettinger wrote a dissertation on Plica Polonica at Pestini
(modern Budapest). [Gyory, 1900].
1834 Jozsef Zanko
wrote a dissertation on Plica Polonica at Pestini (modern
Budapest). [Gyory, 1900].
1839 Rosenberg
described 70 remedies recommended for the cure of Plica Polonica.
[Rosenberg, 1839]
1839 Kajetan
Kowakewski wrote an article, “Researches and Observations on
Plica Polonica,” in the Dublin Journal of Medical Science. He
claimed that one of the symptoms of plica is a desire for
spirituous liquors. He noted that:
“The plica is almost entirely
confined to certain countries. It occurs in Poland, Lithuania,
Russia, Hungary, Silesia, Transylvania, and Prussia. It is most
frequently met with among the lower classes of society, and often
among the Jews, who have been established in these countries for
centuries. It is nor improbable that the Slavonic races scattered
through these countries are more liable to this affection. These
races are by Schaffarik and other historians supposed to have
proceeded from the center of Asia, where, as related by Roderic de
Fonseca, the plica exists also. This author, when traveling in
Asia, was informed that the individuals of certain tribes on the
shores of the Ganges, were occasionally attacked with plica, which
they attributed to the drinking of impure water.
In the countries of Europe
just enumerated, plica attacks animals, most commonly horses, but
has been known to affect dogs, oxen, sheep, wolves and foxes; it
has never been known to occur in birds. From these facts alone,
the endemic nature of the disease cannot be doubted. It is also
occasionally met with in different parts of Germany; along the
Rhine, Switzerland, in Holland and Paris.
The endemic influences
predisposing to plica are unknown. It is a common belief in
Poland, as in India, that it is caused by drinking impure water;
and it is certain that it is most often met with on the shores of
certain rivers, particularly the Vistula and Borysthenes, and in
low and marshy situations.” [Kowakewski, 1839]
1841 Krause wrote
Rudimenta plicae polonicae. [Krause, 1841]
1842 “… in the
statistical return furnished by the Commissioners in Posen, in the
year 1842, instances were met with in which individuals had been
affected with plica for fifty or sixty years.” [Kaposi, 1874]
1843 “The number
of publications (on Plica Polonica) increased steadily until in
1843 Beschorner, director of the first asylum in Poland, published
a large (population based) study and could not substantiate the
disease concept. [Beschorner, 1843] This led to an immediate
cessation of publications on the matter.” [Forstl and Elliger,
1995] (This latter comment is not true, as a perusal of the
documents on Plica Polonica from 1843 to the present will show.)
1847 Honore de
Balzac (1799 – 1850) wrote The Brotherhood of Consolation
in 1847 while residing in Wierschovnia, Poland, where he was
attended by a celebrated Polish physician. In chapter XVII of the
book, Halpersohn, the “Jewish doctor,” says:
“For the last seventeen years she
has been a victim to the element in her system called plica
polonica, which has produced all these ravages. I have seen
more terrible cases than this. Now, I alone in the present day
know how to bring this disease to a crisis, and force it outward
so as to obtain a chance to cure it—for it cannot always be
cured.” [Balzac, 1847]
NOTE:
Balzac’s description of plica polonica, presumeably represents the
local medical opinion in Wierschovnia, Poland where he lived in
1847. This 17th century opinion [Anon, 2005] was widely
held, namely: that the appearance of the plica polonica meant that
a disease was being resolved. As a result, many peasants were
reluctant to have their plicas removed, since having a plica
represented to them being in a state of good health. See: [Vicat,
1787]
1848 “The teacher
Stieff, in Kaczkover-Rojewerdorf, … has within ten years,
completely rooted out plica polonica from that locality, solely by
inculcating cleanliness. In the Inowraclawer district, in the year
1837, there were 100 plica polonicas found amongst the recruits;
in the year 1848, only eight.” [Kaposi, 1874]
1848 Wolf Derblich
wrote a dissertation, De Plica Polonica, at Breslau in
1848. [Derblich, 1848] He noted that: “There had been a long
tradition in Europe which held that the skin of a Jew is marked by
disease, the ‘Judenkratze’ or ‘parech’ as a sign of
devine displeasure. (Parech was a disease long attributed
to Eastern Europeans including Jews under the designation ‘plica
polonica’.)” [Gilman, 1991]
c. 1850 “In the second
half of the 19th century some intellectuals waged a war
against superstition and lack of hygiene among the peasantry. Many
plaits, often to the horror of their owners, were cut off. In
Western Galicia, it was Professor Jozef Dietl who made a
particular effort to examine and treat Polish plaits. He organized
an official census of people suffering from the disease, which
spawned rumors that plaits would be taxed. Those rumors were said
to have helped eradicate the Polish plait in the region. A huge
preserved Polish plait can be seen in the History of Medicine
Museum in Krakow. The Polish word for the Polish plait, kołtun,
is now (in 2005) used figuratively in Poland to denote an
uneducated person with an old-fashioned mindset.” [Anon., 2005]
1857 Erasmus
Wilson, a Fellow of the Royal Society, wrote: ”Plica polonica, so
far as I am able to infer from the description of the disease
given by authors, is, in essential nature, analogous to the common
ringworm of this country. There exists in it, as well as in
ringworm, an enlargement of the diseased hairs, a condition
probably depending on the larger size of the nucleated granules ;
and the latter are the depositories of the morbid fluids which are
found in such quantities in that affection. In other words, Plica
is a state of granular degeneration of the hair, the granules
being turgid with a viscous sanguineous fluid. The state of
matting of the hair, which is thought to be peculiar to Plica, has
also its analogue in ringworm ; and the conical bundles of which I
have spoken, when describing the latter, are the representatives
of the greater and more complete fasciculation of the Polish
disease. “
“According to the best authors on
plica polonica, the scalp is inflamed and excessively tender, the
hairs are swollen and imperfectly formed; they are tinged with a
viscous and reddish-coloured fluid. And the hair-follicles secrete
an abundance of this fluid, which agglutinates the hairs, and then
by desiccation unites them into a solid mass. The tenderness of
the scalp in these cases is so excessive, that the bare touch of a
single hair excites pain, and, when cut across, the reddish fluid
with which the hairs are surcharged, oozes from the divided
extremity. This appearance, together with their extreme
sensibility, has given rise to the supposition of their being
sarcofied, and pervaded with disgusting excoriations of
considerable extent are frequently formed, and the matted hair
becomes the resort of swarms of pediculi.”
“Plica is not confined to the
scalp, but affects the hair on every region of the body, the nails
of the fingers and toes are also changed, becoming rough, fibrous,
and discoloured. Left to itself, the disease lasts ten or twelve
months, the symptoms then subside gradually, the hair returns to
its natural diameter ; and the filthy mass is pushed by degrees
farther and father from the surface, until it falls off
spontaneously, or is cut away by scissors.”
“the hair presents some
modifications, in the manner of its matting, which bear relation
to its length. Thus, in males, who wear the hair short, numerous
locks are matted separately, constituting the variety known as
plica multiformi, at other times, the matted hair forms a
single coil, plica caudiformis; or, again, it may
constitute a large and irregular mass without order in its
matting, the usual character of the disease in women.”
““Several authors have asserted,
that, in the majority of cases, the scalp is not affected in plica,
and that the alteration in the hair occurs at a certain distance
from the integument. This assertion is incredible, and it seems
more reasonable to conclude, that in the cases adduced in support
of this statement, the disease was advancing towards cure, and
consequently that the morbid mass of hair
was removed by growth from the
surface of the scalp.”
“A recent writer on this subject,
Dr. Bidder, makes the following remarks : " During the past
summer, I remained for several weeks in a country where plica
polonica is frequent. The disease occurred only in a mild form. In
all the cases which I examined, about twenty in number, I found
the hair, for a distance varying from half an inch to one inch
from the scalp, perfectly natural; one would have believed that
the disease had been removed from the head by the growth of the
hair. The scalp was perfectly normal, being neither reddened,
swollen, nor increased in sensibility, so that the disease of the
hair would appear to be capable of existing independently of
disorder of the scalp in which the matrix is embedded. "I had also
an opportunity of observing the process of separation of the
diseased from the sound hair. Two individuals presented themselves
in whom the morbid mass had fallen by spontaneous separation, a
rare occurrence. Once alive to the possibility of such a process,
I soon discovered in two cases, a groove, as though made by a
ligature, around the cylinder of the hair, and forming a perfect
line of demarkation between the healthy and diseased portion. In
some hairs, the groove resembled a mere crack ; in others, it had
proceeded so far that the separation was nearly
effected. In other cases, I was
unable to discover the line of demarcation.”
”CAUSES.—Supposing my opinion to
be correct with regard to the nature of the disease, its causes
will probably be found to be analogous to those of ringworm. The
disorder is most prevalent on the banks of rivers and in the
marshy districts of Poland, in which it appears to be endemic. It
is met with, as is ringworm, among the noble* and the wealthy, as
well as in the poor ; and, unlike ringworm, it occurs in adults as
well as children.”
“TREATMENT—The treatment which is
applicable to ringworm I should conceive to be suited also to
plica. Change of air, improved diet, and altered hygienic
conditions must be indubitably necessary,
and the same tonic alterative medicines. A prejudice seems to
prevail in Poland against the removal of the mass by mechanical
means, which I am inclined to think unreasonable. I should
certainly suggest the trial of moderately strong stimulating local
remedies.” [Wilson, 1857]
1861 Dr. T.M.
Anderson, a Glasgow physician, cautioned “…that in those cases
where the head has long been attacked by great numbers
of pediculli, especially in the case of children, it is dangerous
to eradicate them suddenly, for by doing so internal diseases have
been developed and Divergie has seen two infants die from the
sudden cutting short of the accustomed itching and secretion. It
is, therefore, necessary, in such instances, to cure the disease
more slowly, to attack only small portions of the head at a time,
and especially to avoid cutting short the hair at once. It is only
in rare instances, however, that such precautions are required.”
[Anderson, 1861]
1862 Jan Dietl, a
professor at the Jagellonian University in Cracow, wrote a
voluminous report based on a study of 1,044 cases of plica
polonica. The study was sponsored by the Austrian Minister of the
Interior, and involved the participation of many prominent
physicians.
“Plica is neither a disease of the
hair, nor a plicomatous specific condition, nor a crisis of
diseases; hence it has no physiological connection with the
accompanying disease, nor can it be considered a pathological
condition.”
“It is never hereditary,
contagious, nor, of course, infective. The deep superstition of it
being a cure and protective against any disease, together with
negligence and uncleanliness. Is the chief cause of the existence
of plica. Plica never occurs in people with short hair, but only
where superstition, negligence, and uncleanliness hold sway, no
matter what country, surroundings, climate, season, sex, age
constitution, or nationality.” [Dietl, 1862]
1866 “A poor law
physician at Insterburg in East Prussia described in 1866 notable
cases of louse infestation: impetigo disfigured the skin with
viscid and foul-smelling sores, matted scabs and crusts formed at
the nape of the neck, a condition known as Plica Polonica
and associated with poor Jews; lice congregated beneath the skin
and caused swelling and abscesses, and a rough, black discolouring
of the skin resulted from haemorrhaging due to louse bites.” [Hoeppli,
1959 cited by Weindling, 2000]
1866 Ferdinand von Hebra, a leading dermatologist
in Vienna, wrote:
“Thus various diseases of the
scalp (such as eczema and favus, even syphilitic ulcers) have been
supposed to examples of the complaint: while in other instances
the matted and tangled state of hair naturally long and abundant
has been simply due to neglect, and braided false hair with it.
Having myself had occasion to observe many cases of this kind, I
am quite satisfied that there is no disease which deserves the
name of plica Polonica. Indeed, the fact that this complaint
does not exist has been fully established by careful
investigations and observations, and it is to be hoped that the
profession generally will adopt this conclusion, and no longer
attribute to a special disease cases in which the hair happens to
be matted together by the causes I have mentioned, and in which
the persistence of this condition is due merely to prejudice,
superstition and neglect of cleanliness.” [Hebra, 1866]
1866 T.W. Belcher,
MD., discussed the state of knowledge of plica polonica in
Dublin in 1866. [Belcher, 1866]
“The only alteration in the
character of the hair which can be strictly regarded as a disease
is that peculiar felting and matting of it together which
constitutes the singular affection that has been named Plica
Polonica. This disease, which is " der weischelzopf " of the
Germans, is an affection of the hair endemic in Poland and the
surrounding countries, where it is said to be produced by the bad
living and unclean habits of the inhabitants. After inflammation
of the scalp, which becomes swollen, red, and sore to the touch, a
viscid exudation takes place from it, matting the hairs together,
so that, as Dr. Fox observes—" Lice, pus, blood, and fungus
elements are found mixed together in the plicose felting." This
disease affects the scalp, pubes, nails, and sometimes the chin
and axillae; and after some months the diseased mass is said to be
" pushed off." Dr. Fox, from whose description the above is for
the most part condensed, considers it to be of the same nature as
the Pellagra, or modified forms of elephantiasis, viz., a result
of action of deteriorating influences upon the general nutrition
at large. He also observes that a fungus—the trichophyton
sporuloides of Giinsburg—has been found, and is supposed to be
the real cause of the disease, the soil favouring the development
of a parasitic fungus. On the other hand, Gustav Simon could not
find any vegetation in the hairs themselves, and he regards the
disease as consisting chiefly of an abnormal secretion from the
surface of the skin, not especially implicating the hair
follicles. Fuchs believed the sticky material to come from the
hair follicles. Hillier thinks that the real nature of the disease
is not fully proved, and Hebra suggests that it is not a distinct
disease, but eczema or some other skin affection much neglected.
Dr. Neligan never saw a case of it, nor has the Editor had that
advantage. “
1868 Charles
Darwin wrote: “The Plica Polonica …rarely affects Germans, who
inhabit the neighbourhood of the Vistula, where so many Poles are
grievously affected; and on the other hand, it does not affect
Russians, who are said to belong to the same original stock with
the Poles. [Darwin, 1868]
1872 Isidor
Neumann wrote in his “Handbook of Skin Diseases” that plica
polonica was really Eczema of the head (Eczema capitis),
which only persists in people who do not pay attention to keeping
their hair clean. [Neumann, 1872]
1874 Dr. Moriz Kaposi (1837 – 1902) (of Kaposi’s
Sarcoma fame) wrote that:
“Those of our professional
brethren who are intimately acquainted with the views of the
Vienna dermatological school will be justly astonished that, in a
place which should be devoted to the gravest scientific
discussion, we treat of plica polonica, which long ago ceased to
have any existence as a disease in the natural history of
medicine, and, for decades, has been transferred from the
pathological series to that of artificial, mechanical products.”
“Every
year we have the opportunity of seeing some cases of plica
polonica. Their aspect and cause are always the same. The
individuals are mostly such who are affected with pediculi capitis,
and have given rise to the plica polonica by neglect of the use of
the comb, or such who endure it ‘in good faith,’ on account of
some existing disease. We have invariably removed the plica
polonica, and have never seen any ill result therefrom.”
“The
removal of the plica polonica is most easily effected by means of
the scissors. We have never seen the wonderful ‘bleeding’ of the
plica hairs, which some authors mention, but which a medical man
acquainted with anatomy cannot in the least credit. If there were
bleeding this would come from the wounded scalp, cut by the
scissors.”
“We can,
however, also unravel the plica polonica and therefore need not
necessarily cut it off. … Our nurses accomplish this in the course
of twenty-four hours. The mass of the plica polonica is, first of
all, saturated by pouring oil freely over it. If lice are present
they are treated with petroleum, which immediately kills them. We
must, however, be careful not to bring a light near on account of
the very inflammatory nature of the petroleum. When the plica
polonica is sufficiently saturated with oil, we then begin the
manipulation of the unraveling by separating and loosening with
the fingers the hairs glued together in small tufts, till the
individual hairs appear separated to the utmost, and then only, we
begin to smooth the hairs by means of a wide toothed comb. …
Finally, the whole ball is unraveled by patient continuance of
this manipulation – the plica polonica has vanished..” [Kaposi,
1874]
1870’s
Gustave Flaubert (1821 – 1880), the famous French novelist, wrote
Le Dictionnaire des Idees Recues (Dictionary of Received Ides)
which was published posthumously in 1911-3. [(Dictionary of
Received Ideas) Wikipedia, 2007] It defines Plica Polonica as: “If
you cut your hair, it bleeds”. [Flaubert, 1870’s]
1882 “A report has
been spread that the horrible disease known as the plica polonica
has made its appearance in London, brought over by the traders in
false hair from Poland. The disease is one of the most horrible
kind, incurable, and rendering its victim an object as hideous to
behold as the leper of the East. The hair, instead of dividing
into fine and silky threads, conglomerates into thick matter, with
only one thick root, which bleeds on being cut, so that no relief
can be obtained save by cauterizing the whole mass.” [Anon, 1882]
1896
George. M. Gould and Walter. L. Pyle Wrote:
“Plica polonica, or, as it was
known in Cracow--weichselzopf, is a disease peculiar to Poland, or
to those of Polish antecedents, characterized by the
agglutination, tangling, and anomalous development of the hair, or
by an alteration of the nails, which become spongy and blackish.
In older days the disease was well known and occupied a prominent
place in books on skin-diseases. Hercules de Saxonia and Thomas
Minadous, in 1610, speak of plica as a disease already long known.
The greater number of writers fix the date of its appearance in
Poland at about the year 1285, under the reign of Lezekle-Noir.
Lafontaine stated that in the provinces of Cracow and Sandomir
plica formerly attacked the peasantry, beggars, and Jews in the
proportion 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 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.” [Gould and Pyle, 1896]
1907
In the US, Rolla Thomas [Thomas, 1907] suggested that:
“Where the hair is matted or the
nits abundant, it is better to have the hair cut short, though not
absolutely necessary. The hair and the scalp is to be thoroughly
saturated with petroleum, (coal oil) and allowed to remain for ten
or twelve hours, when the parasites and ova are entirely
destroyed. This will be followed by thoroughly washing the head
with warm water and soap; any good toilet soap may be used ….The
hair should be combed with a fine-tooth comb, in order to remove
the ova, shells, and parasites.”
1908 “‘Plica
Polonica’ infects the marshy regions of Lithuania and Russian
Poland.” [Annon., 1908]
1910 “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.” [Gould and Pyle, 1910]
1911
The “1911 Encyclopedia Britannica” describes the marshy area near
Minsk, Russia:
“The climate of the Polyesie [The
Woods] is extremely unhealthy; malarias and an endemic disease of
the hair (Plica Polonica) are the plagues of these tracts.”
[Anon., 1911]
1913 Webster’s
1913 Dictionary defined Plica Polonica as a disease of the hair in
which the hairs become twisted and matted together. Webster’s
noted that the disease was of Polish origin, and hence was also
called Polish Plait. [Webster, 1913]
1915 Two
professors at Cornell University published a photograph of a case
of ‘Pediculosis of the head’. “The illustration shows the
characteristic indications of the presence of lice, viz: the
occipital eczema gluing the hairs together, the swollen cervical
glands, and the porrigo, or eruption of contagious pustules upon
the neck.” [Riley and Johannsen, 1915]
1917 In “South
Wind”, a well-known work by Norman Douglas (1868 – 1952), the
water from the Fountain of Paradise on the fictional
volcanic island of Nepenthe (Capri?) is described as having
nitrous ingredients. The water was “efficacious for the distemper
known as PLICA POLONICA….” [Douglas, 1917] [(Norman Douglas)
Wikipedia, 2007]
1924 William
Boericke (1849-1929) suggested in the 6th edition of
his “Pocket Manual of Homeopathic Materia Medica,” that a
dose of 1st to 3rd potency of Lesser
Periwinkle (Vinca Minor) was an appropriate remedy for
Plica Polonica. [Boericke, 1924]
1995 “No original
publications can be found in the Hungarian medical literature
about this topic [Plica Polonica]. However we can find
people with this syndrome in Hungary also at the preset time. It
can be connected with the increasing aging and growing poverty in
our country.”[Mozer, 1995] However, “Bibliographia Medica
Hungariae, 1472 – 1899” shows that three medical theses on plica
polonica were written in Budapest between 1780 and 1834. [Gyory,
1900].
2000 In
Switzerland, … “A young man presented with dreadlocks. There are
remarkable similarities with the so-called plica polonica, that
historically had been treated with long courses of mercury.
Apparently very important in the 18th century, the
interest for this hair-disorder appears to lost in specialized
medical literature. In contrast dreadlocks, a recent hairstyle,
are frequently encountered. Lack of other sources various websites
provide dermatologists with answers to questions regarding
complications. Fortunately a simple haircut is today treatment
enough.” [Friedli et al., 2000]
2002 Robert Gwadz,
assistant chief of NAID’s Laboratory of Parasitic Diseases, and a
lecturer in parasitology at Columbia University, has noted that
Plica Polonica can develop as a result of an immune response
of the human body to head lice bites.[Gwadz, 2003]
2004 In the UK,
the case of a 9 year old girl with pediculosis and matted hair,
i.e. Plica Polonica, was reported. [Baron, 2004]
2005 A case of a
child with head lice and matted hair [Plica Polonica]
was reported at the Royal Aberdeen Hospital in Scotland. “The
hair was entirely matted in a solid mass and gave off an offensive
smell.” [Murray, 2006]
2007 A case of a
one year old child with scabies, pediculosis capitis with
secondary pyoderma, and plica polonica was diagnosed in Tamilnadu,
India. “The patient was treated with antiscabetics and oral
antibiotics. The entire family was treated for scabies and
pediculosis capitis. The matted locks of hair were cut close to
the scalp, after which the patient recovered dramatically.” [Gnanaraj
et al., 2007]
References
©2007 by Harry A. Morewitz, PhD. All rights reserved.
