“In the first beginning whilest man was in his innocency, and free from wickednesse, he was subject to no corruption and filth, but when he was seduced by the wickednesse of that great and cunning deceiver, and proudly affected to know as much as God knew, God humbled him with divers diseases, and divers sorts of Worms, with Lice, Hand-worms, Belly-worms, others call _Termites_, small Nits and Acares ... a Lowse ... is a beastly Creature, and known better in Innes and Armies then it is wellcome. The profit it bringeth, _Achilles_ sheweth, _Iliad_ I. in these words: _I make no more of him then I doe of a Lowse_; as we have an English Proverb of a poor man, _He is not worth a Lowse_. The Lice that trouble men are either tame or wilde ones, those the _English_ call _Lice_, and these _Crab-lice_; the North _English_ call them _Pert-lice_, that is, a petulant Lowse comprehending both kindes; it is a certain sign of misery, and is sometimes the inevitable scourge of God.” Rowland’s _Mouffet’s Theater of Insects_, p. 1090, ed. 1658 (published in Latin, 1634). By this date we had improved. Mouffet says, “These filthy creatures ... are hated more than Dogs or Vipers by our daintiest Dames,” _ib._ p. 1093; and again, p. 1097, “Cardan, that was a fancier of subtilties, writes that the _Carthusians_ are never vexed with Wall-lice, and he gives the cause, because they eat no flesh.... He should rather have alledged their cleanliness, and the frequent washing of their beds and blankets, to be the cause of it, which when the _French_, the _Dutch_, and _Italians_ do less regard, they more breed this plague. But the English that take great care to be cleanly and decent, are seldom troubled with them.” Also, on p. 1092, he says, ‘As for dressing the body: all _Ireland_ is noted for this, that it swarms almost with Lice. But that this proceeds from the beastliness of the people, and want of cleanly women to wash them is manifest, because the English that are more careful to dress themselves, changing and washing their shirts often, having inhabited so long in _Ireland_, have escaped that plague.... Remedies. The _Irish_ and _Iseland_ people (who are frequently troubled with Lice, and such as will fly, as they say, in Summer) anoint their shirts with Saffron, and to very good purpose, to drive away the Lice, but after six moneths they wash their shirts again, putting fresh Saffron into the Lye.’ Rowland’s Mouffet (1634), _Theater of Insects_, p. 1092, ed. 1658.]