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.
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