ZOOLOGY. 315 



ers between the quills on which the normal form of this mite 

 lives. 



The mites and spiders of Kerguelen Land have been de- 

 scribed and figured by Rev. O. P. Cambridge in the Proceed- 

 ings of the Zoological Society of London. A new "order" 

 is proposed for a certain mite, but it is doubtful whether it 

 is the type of a higher division than a family. 



The recent work of Mr. Andrew Murray on "Economic 

 Entomology" is devoted to the wingless insects, and mainly 

 to mites. It is a most useful book and very fully illustrated. 

 In treating of the cheese-mite, or Tyroglyphas slro of Lin- 

 naeus, it says: "It is usual to hear the flour- and the cheese- 

 mite spoken of by naturalists, described in books, and mount- 

 ed by microscopists as two different and distinct species; 

 but they are not so. It Avas Linnams who commenced the 

 blunder by judging from the two different kinds of food, in- 

 stead of from the mites themselves, and describing those 

 which he found on cheese as the cheese-mite (Acarus siro), 

 those on flour as the flour-mite (Acarus fari?ue), and those in 

 milk as the milk-mite (Acarus lactis). It has also received 

 other names." It was the cause of an attack of dysentery 

 in Rolander, a student of Linnaeus. The disease, however, 

 quickly yielded to the usual remedies; but again .returned. 

 Linnaeus, aware that Barthelemy had attributed the dysen- 

 tery to insects, which he professed to have seen, advised his 

 pupil to examine his faeces. "Rolander, following this ad- 

 vice, discovered in them innumerable animalcules, which, 

 upon close examination, proved to be mites. It was next a 

 question how he alone came to be singled out by them ; and 

 thus he accounted for it. It was his habit not to drink at 

 his meals; but in the night, growing thirsty, he often sipped 

 some liquid out of a vessel made of juniper wood. Inspect- 

 ing this very narrowly, he observed, in the chinks between 

 the ribs, a white line, which, when viewed under a lens, he 

 found to consist of innumerable mites precisely the same 

 with those that he had voided. Various experiments were 

 tried with them, and a preparation of rhubarb was found to 

 destroy them most effectually. He afterwards discovered 

 them in vessels containing acids, and often under the bung 

 of casks. In the instance here recorded, the dysentery or 

 diarrhoea was thus apparently produced by a species of mite, 



