86 DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 



will be light. But some think, and those men of merited celebrity, that 

 mites have nothing to do in these and similar cases, for that maggots were 

 the parasites mistaken for lice. This, from the passage above quoted, 

 appears to have been Dr. Willan's opinion, to which, in the letter so often 

 referred to, Dr. Bateman subscribes, adding as a reason for excluding 

 mites from being concerned, that, " they are too minute, and never have 

 been seen in such numbers as to be mistaken for lice." But both vary in 

 size, some of the former being larger than some of the latter. And allow- 

 ing them to be ever so minute, yet when they issue in swarms, as mites 

 from a cheese, they would be very visible, were it only from their motion. 

 Besides, as they are furnished with legs, their motions resemble those of 

 lice infinitely more than do the contortions of maggots. So that a mite 

 would be deemed a louse much sooner by an unentomological observer than 

 would a maggot. Whether mites have ever been seen in such numbers as 

 to be mistaken for lice, is the point in question, and therefore, by itself, 

 cannot be admitted for a valid argument. Though Aca7'us Scahiei does 

 not appear to swarm in ordinary cases, yet this is certainly no reason why 

 other species may not do so. Where it has once made a settlement, how 

 incredibly, and in how short a space of time, does the Siro or cheese-mite 

 multiply ! Acarus destructor and many other species are equally rapid 

 in their increase. — Millions of lice are said by Lafontaine, whom Hermann 

 calls a very exact describer, to show themselves in Plica polonica, on the 

 third day of the disease^ ; but whether the last-mentioned author be cor- 

 rect in thinking it more probable that they are mites^, I have not the means 

 ofjudging. 



I shall now produce two instances where mites were evidently concern- 

 ed. Dr. Mead, from the German Ephemerides, relates the miserable case 

 of a French nobleman, from whose eyes, nostrils, mouth, and urinary 

 passage, animalcules of a red color, and excessively minute, broke forth 

 day and night, attended by the most horrible and excruciating pains, and 

 at length occasioned his death. The account further says, that they were 

 produced from his corrupted blood. This was probably a fancy originat- 

 ing in their red color ; but the whole history, whether we consider the size 

 and color of the animals, or the places from which they issue, is inappli- 

 cable to larvce or maggots, and agrees very well with mites, some of which, 

 particularly Leptus autumnalis, are of a bright red color. The other case, 

 and a very similar one, is that recorded by MoufFet of Lady Penruddock, 

 concerning whom he expressly tells us, that Acari swarmed in every part 

 of her body — her head, eyes, nose, lips, gums, the soles of her feet, &c., 

 tormenting her day and night, till, in spite of every remedy, all the flesh 

 of her body being consumed, she was at length relieved by death from 

 this terrible state of suffering. Mouffet attributes her disease to the Aca- 

 rus Scahiei, but from the symptoms and fatal result, it seems to have been 

 a difierent and much more terrific animal. He supposes, in this instance, 

 the insect to have been generated by drinking goat's milk too copiously. 

 This, if correct, would lead to a conjecture that it might have been the 

 A. Lactis, L.^ 



' Traitis de Chirurgie, <Scc. Leipsig, 1792. • M6m. Apterolog. 78. 



3 A new species ol' mite has just been described by M. Simon, which lives in the diseased 

 and normal hair-sacs of man. Mailer's Archiv. 1842, p. 278. 



