92 DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 



walk^. And to close my veteran authorities, Junius thus 

 explains the word Acarus, as I find him quoted hi Gould- 

 man's useful dictionary, " A small worm^ which eats under 

 the skin, and makes burrows in itching hands ^." 



In more modern times, microscopical figures have been 

 added to descriptions of the insect. Bonomo first fur- 

 nished this valuable species of elucidation. His figures, 

 however, which are copied by Baker in his work on the 

 microscope, are far from accurate '^. Those of De Geer 

 and Dr. Adams are much more satisfactory, and mutually 

 confirm each other''. From them it is evident that the 

 same insect inhabits the scabies of Sweden and Madeira. 

 Dr. Bateman, in the letter before alluded to, informs his 

 correspondent, that he had seen that from Madeira, and 

 gives it as his opinion, that there cannot be a doubt of 

 the existence of an Acarus Scabiei ; an opinion which 

 he repeats in his late work on Cutaneous Diseases ; and 

 which, according to Hermann ^, has been also rendered 

 unquestionable by Wichmann in his Etiologie de la Gale 

 (Hanovre 1786), a work I have not had an opportunity 

 of consulting. From all this we may regard the point 

 as so tar settled, that an animal of this kind exists at 

 least as an occasional concomitant of scabies. 



This fact behig ascertained, a more complex inquiry 



■■' Iiuo ipsi Acnri prae exiguitate indivisibiles, ex ciiniculis prope 

 aqua; lacum qiios foderunt in cute, acii cxtracti et iingue impositi, 

 caput rubruin, et pedes quibus gradiuntur ad soleni produnt. p. vi. 



'' Teredo sive exiguus vermiculus, qui subter cutini credit agitquc 

 cuniculos in jjruriginosis manibus. Gouldman tells us these Acari 

 were also called Jlrnid-worms. Another English name is given in 

 Mouff'et, viz. Whealc- worms. 



'^ Osscrvazioiii intorno a pelliccll't del corpo iimano fatlc dal Dot lor 

 Gio Cosimo Bonomo, Scc.f. 1-3. Haker On Mkrosc. i. t. 13. y. 2. 



'^ Dc Ciccr, vii. /, b.f. 13. 14. "^ jMcm, Aj>lcrologiquc, 79. 



