iQio] Pedictiloides Noxious to Man 17 



wheat after the long rains of summer, developed an itching erup- 

 tion on all exposed parts of the body. 



May I, 1872, a baker in the canton of Creon received a num- 

 ber of sacks of wheat from Bordeaux. Five men who were 

 engaged in carr^dng these sacks promptly developed severe itch- 

 ing on the back, shoulders and arms, followed by an eruption of 

 somewhat pointed red pimples. Fear seized the patients and 

 their families, who thought themselves poisoned, but experts 

 examining this wheat determined the cause of the trouble to be 

 w^hat is now known as Pediculoides tritici. The condition caused 

 by this mite has been given the name of "grain fever." 



In 1875, Targioni-Tozzetti"* reported an eruption produced in 

 a laborer who had carried sacks of wheat. 



In 1879, Geber'^ observed in Lower Hungary an eruptive epi- 

 demic coming from barle^^ It appears that in the first days of 

 the month of June, barley which was shipped from Lower Hun- 

 gary, in sacks, was being unloaded at a railway station. After 

 being engaged in this work for a few minutes, these laborers were 

 attacked by a violent itching and burning and to such a degree 

 did this become annoying and painful that it was with great 

 difficulty that they were induced to continue their work. Geber 

 desiring to obtain farther information, visited the railway sta- 

 tion in question about ten days after and examined the laborers 

 who had been attacked. 



In order to carry out an experiment of his own, Geber em- 

 ployed an idiot to carry a sack of barley precisely as the laborers 

 had done. The idiot also began unconsciously to scratch and 

 immediately an eruption somewhat like nettle rash attacked him. 

 It was observed at the time the laborers were handling these 

 sacks of barley a yellowish-brown powder of considerable quan- 

 tity fell out of the sacks and this circumstance turned the atten- 

 tion of the officials to the barley. Upon a small part of this 

 powder being brought under a microscope the presence of both 

 living and dead mites was revealed. 



The illustrations of Geber' s paper are two figures, figure 2 

 representing with reasonable accuracy what might have been a 



-i. Targioni-Tozzctti, Relazione intorno ai lavori della Statione di Ento- 

 mologie agraria di Firenze per I'anno, 1876, Annali, dell Agricultura, t. I, 1878. 



5. Geber, Entzundliche Prozesse der Haut, durch eine bis jetzt. nicht 

 bestimmute Milbe Varursacht; Wiener Med. Presse, Vol. 20, 1879, et V. Zienis- 

 sen's Handbunchd, spec. Pathol, u Therapie, t. XIV, Handbuch, d. Hautkrank, 

 2, 1884, page 412. 



