The National tribune., 1885-06-18

NV
THE PEDICULUs yEsTIMENTI.
This excellent portrait represents healthy,
robust specimen of this sportive insect 1t is
of heroic size-very much so, in fact, having
been enlarged 80 or 40 times by the aid of a
microscope. 1t may fairly be presumed that
few, if any, of the old soldiers viii recognize
it by the name, for that is not what we used to
call it in the army. The scientific chaps chris
tened it by this high-sounding title, pedicatlHs
ccstimeati probably because this can be used in
any company of polite people with perfect
safety, as not one person in huadred viii
know what it means. To call it by its other
name, which is spelled louise, would be
shocking to sensitive ears. Some of the savans
who have got the Classification :" down fine"
speak of this variety as the pedicaluS corporiS,
thereby indicating its habit of browsing around
upon the body or corporoSity of its victim ;
while the other fellow, that lives in the jungle
of hair upon the head, and is only exterminated
through the persuasive labors of a fine-tooth
comb, they designate as the pedicalas captiS.
If doubt exists in the mind of any respecting
the identity Of the pedicutus gcStimeati, it will
be removed by the following, from the Amer-
can Entonologist-a magazine in which the
wise men tell all they know, or can guess at,
about bugs and insects 1t says:
"This is the species which, during the late
war, infested SO grievously both Union and
rebel soldiers from whom it received the char
acteristic name Of grayback.'
This is the name that strikes the veteran.
1t has the old, familiar sound, and there can
be no mistake about it. The learned writer
just quoted goes On to discuss the subject in
this way:
The reason that it was so prevalent in the
late war was that the soldiers, from the neces-
sities of the service, were unable to wash their
clothing as often as they would have done at
home, and IS times out of 20 had nothing but
cold water to wash it in. Now almost every
species of insect will revive after an immersion
of several hours in cold water, whereas water
of such a temperature that you cannot bear
your finger in it for one second will immedi-
ately destroy any insect whatever that is i'm
mersed in it,"
million or two of men in this country, who
have had more or less ENTHUSIASTICALLY
more-with the peaicsllas restisaeati, will agree
that this is clear statement OF the case. 1t
makes one think that the person who wrote it
must have been there" One of the great
problems of the war was how to
GET BID OF THE PEDICULUs.
1t was decidedly practical question, and per-
soDally interested the soldiers far more than
those other questions of State sovereignty, con-
fscation and the negro, which put the states
men to their best trumps. Probably the intel
lects of most of the soldiers were exercised with
far greater activity in planning successful cam
paigns against the pediculsS than thinking
about those which were directed against Lee
and Bragg and Hood and Joe Johnston.
This arch enemy of the soldier was no re-
specter of persons Like the rain which we are
told in the bible falls alike upon the Just and
unjust the pedicsdas preyed incessantly upon
Union and rebel But for this fact it might
have been imagined that the grayback was
diabolical invention of the enemy, more to be
dreaded than Gatling guns Greek fire or
breech-loading rifles. AS it was he feasted and
fattened with equal enjoyment upon those who
wore the blae and the gray. Nor did he have
any reverence for rank Those whose shoul-
ders were decorated with straps containing bars
and leaves and eagles and stars seemed to taste
just as good to the pediculuS as the corporeal
juices of the private soldier
Once during that fearful midsummer march
from Bridgeport, Ala, to Louisville, in 1862, the
writer saw robust Brigadier-General who was
afterwards President of the United States, en-
gagged in chasing the pedicutIs Uestimenti along
the seams of his neither garment, which was
spread out upon his knees in the regulation
style. 1t was just after we had bivouacked for
the night at the end of hard days march, We
had no tents, nor anything else to speak Of
except graybacks. These were exceedingly nu-
merous and active The General lad wandered
out back OF his headquarters, and, squatting
behind the largest tree he could find, applied
his energies to the work Of skirmishing,"
while the setting sun east mellow glow over
the touching scene. Not far away, behind other
engagcd-cracking jokes and graybacks.
1t may be observed here that that march
from Bridgeport TO Louisville was a continual
picnic for the pedicalass.
NOT ONE MAN IN TEN
had change Of clothing or even two shirts.
For weeks we tramped through the heat and
dust, sometimes night and day, with but very
rare opportunities for washing either our clothes
or our persons. Water, soap, aud leisure time
were about equally scarce. In spite of our ut
most efforts to curtail his enjoyment, the pest
iferous insect had prolonged season of riotous
living. There was little chance for the effect
i've boiling process, as we had scarcely one
camp kettle to regiment. Nearly all our
worldly effects had been destroyed in an i'm
mense bonfire at the foot of the mountains,
when the enemy pressed US too closely. The
scientific extract quoted above is correct as to
the folly Of trying to drown the gray hack We
found that a cold bath, even extended for hours
seemed only 20 inyigorate him and give him
fresh start. When squad of afflicted men
were SO fortunate rs to secure the use of a ket-
tie, they generally wandered about IN par-is
flatardLtbas ahoye the latitude of the waistband
OF the brooches, while they crowded the fire
and suffered the boiling water TO do its perfect
work. AL have heard Of the urchin whose
shirt IVES drying upon bush while he ran
around without any. When a passer-by ques-
toned him respecting his scanty apparel he
inquired, "What does boy want of thousand
shirts2" The soldiers on this march might
well have given a similar answer to such aues-
tion, although We did feel that tuo of these in
innate garments would not be an oversupply.
On one occasion, near Bowling Green, our
company pressed into the service large iron
csuldron, which some of tho boys found lying
in barn. We put in half a barrel of water
and about 40 shirts, and built roaring fire
under the kettle. We knew it was only brief
halt Of the column, and that we were liable to
march at any moment, but the temptation for
revenge upon our tormentors was too strong to
be resisted, and we hoped to have time to CON-