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think it a Product of Nastiness, by not combing their Hair, nor washing their Heads; for if it were a real Distemper, the People of Fashion could no more be free from it than the ordinary People, among whom (i. e. the ordinary and poor) it only happens. This is confirmed by an inquisitive Person, (a Correspondent of Mr. Joh. Henry Lincke, F. R. S. of Lipsick,) who sent the following Article to the Society of Breslaw, in whose Transactions, entituled, Sammlung von Natur. &c. Anno 1724, Artic. 17, Mense Augusso, p. 126, it is inferred to this Purpose.)
"The great Multitude of People in Poland, who are troubled with this Plica, first made me reflect, whether it were a real Disease or no? I am now convinced, that their swinish Way of living, and the common Opinion so deeply rooted in the Generality of People, that this Lock of Hair cannot be taken off without Danger of their Lives, have contributed more to this Complaint than any real Indisposition of Body; considering that it is the middling or poor People, who are troubled with it; whom then one cannot look on without Horror: But no German, of whom there are great Numbers, who live in that Country, ever had any such thing grow. Many of them, who are married to Women of Polish Birth, are scarce able to perswade their Wives not to train up their Children to this Nastiness. Not long since I saw a Fellow in the Church, who had about seventy of such Locks hanging down from his Head, which"were
