very long – even up to 80 cm (31.5"). Polish plaits could take various forms, from a ball of hair to a long tail. Plaits were even categorized; plaits were "male" and "female", "inner" and "outer", "noble" and "fake", "proper" and "parasitical". British diarist Hester Thrale, in her book Observations and Reflections Made in the Course of a Journey through France, Italy, and Germany, described a Polish plait she saw in 1786 in the collection of the Elector of Saxony in Dresden: "the size and 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." During the Age of Enlightenment, it became common to use the terms plica polonica (Polish plait) and plica judaica (Jewish plait), as well as the term "Polish ringworm" in English. In addition to antisemitism, there was also prejudice against Eastern Europeans. According to Larry Wolff's book The Invention of Eastern Europe, Poles were considered "semi-Asians", the descendants of Tatars and barbarians. Maurice Fishberg in his book The Jews: A Study of Race and Environment mentions both terms. It was a common belief that plica was a contagious disease which originated in Poland after the Mongol invasion and later spread to other countries. Diderot wrote in his Encyclopédie (due to his misunderstanding of Martin Cromer's text) that the Tatar invasion of Poland was the source of plica. An example of the belief in the spread of plica as a contagious disease by foreign hosts was the Victorian-era British belief that the plica was spread like a disease by Polish traders in artificial hair. George Lefevre, in his book An Apology for the Nerves (1844), mentions the terms plica polonica and plica judaica and also debunks the popular belief that wearing the Polish national costume could cause plica in the wearer. He describes the case of a woman in Berlin who did not wear the Polish national costume, yet was affected with plica. He concluded, "Neither, therefore, are strangers free from it, nor is produced by dress alone." Zygmunt Gloger in his argued that according to research done by the Grimm Brothers and Rosenbaum, plica polonica and the idea that it spread from Poland was an error, as it was also found among the Germanic population of Bavaria and Rhine River area.