By the way, "canities", pronounced ka-nish-i-uz, is found at neither AskOxford nor InfoPlease; it can be found via a specialized search through TheFreeDictionary.com, or in the addendum to Webster's Twentieth Century: Unabridged. As of page 45, this word has not yet appeared in The Professor and the Madman.
A corrupted variant of the term may be found in Dahl's works, as vermicious knids.