iQio] Pediculoides Noxious to Man 25 



to him in great distress, stating that the tenant and keeper of 

 the boarding house, which accommodated about seventy-five 

 persons, would not pay the rent thereon, and further stated that 

 the tenant had been threatened with legal proceedings by the 

 boarders who had even suggested bodily injury. The cause of 

 all of this trouble was an epidemic of a rash like disease, the 

 causes of which were suspected to lie in the mattresses of the 

 beds occupied by the patrons of the house, because of the occu- 

 pants having been attacked by a very mysterious and aggravat- 

 ing skin eruption. The owner submitted straw dust and mat- 

 tress debris taken from the suspected beds and on examination 

 of this Dr. Skinner found specimens of this mite. The house 

 was promptly deserted b^^ the boarders, none of w^hom as it seems 

 escaped infection and none of whom were willing to return. The 

 matter does not appear to have been further investigated. 



In the Philadelphia Medical Journal for July 6, 1901, Jay F. 

 Schamberg, M. D., of Philadelphia, published a short paper, call- 

 ing attention to and describing "An Epidemic of a Peculiar and 

 Unfamiliar Disease of the Skin." In this paper, Dr. Schamberg, 

 who, besides being a practicing physician, is professor of Derma- 

 tology, and Infectious Eruptive Diseases, in the Philadelphia 

 Polyclinic, described a number of cases that had been treated by 

 him a few weeks prior to the publication of this paper. The 

 eruption and its effect on the patient were briefly described 

 and illustrated, but the causes instrumental in bringing about 

 these attacks were still unknown to him; and as several mem- 

 bers of the same household were commonly affected the dis- 

 ease was considered likely to prove contagious. The dermatitis, 

 however, was not lost sight of, and in a paper contributed to the 

 Public Health Reports, Volume XXIV, No. 28, July 9, 1909, Dr. 

 Joseph Goldberger, Past Assistant Surgeon of the United States 

 Public Health and Marine Hospital Service, in cooperation with 

 Dr. Schamberg, published the first exact information we have 

 relative to the cause of these epidemics and this paper, so far as 

 known to me, is the first publication in this country in which the 

 attack of this mite has been followed up and its dermatological 

 effect on humans carefully studied and described. This paper of 

 Drs. Goldberger and Schamberg may be briefly- summarized as 

 follows : 



In the spring and summer of 1909, this peculiar eruptive dis- 

 ease became quite prevalent in Philadelphia and neighboring 



