igio] Pedictiloides Noxious to Man 27 



One manufacturer had used straw from this source exclusively 

 in the affected mattresses. 



Finding of a Parasite. Drs. Goldberger and Schamberg sifted 

 the straw from a mattress through the meshes of a fine flour sieve 

 upon a large plate glass covered with white paper. Close scru- 

 tin3^ of the siftings under strong electric illumination soon de- 

 tected some slight motion. The moving particles were touched 

 with a needle moistened in glycerine and transferred to a glass 

 slide. Search with the microscope disclosed the presence of a mite 

 of very minute dimensions. The mite was identified for them 

 by Mr. Nathan Banks, expert in Acarina of the U. S. Bureau of 

 Entomology, as very close to, if not identical with, the Pedicu- 

 loides ventricosiis. 



In order to demonstrate experimentally the ethiological rela- 

 tionship of the suspected straw mattresses, Dr. Goldberger ex- 

 posed his bared left arm and shoulder for one hour between two 

 mattresses. At the end of about 16 hours, a number of charac- 

 teristic lesions appeared upon the arm, shoulder and chest. Later 

 three volunteers slept upon the mattresses and each one devel- 

 oped the eruption at the end of about the same period. 



Dr. Goldberger later took some of the sifted straw, divided it 

 into two portions and placed it in two clean Petri glass dishes. 

 One of these was appHed for one hour to the left axilla of a volun- 

 teer. At the end of from 16 to 17 hours, the characteristic erup- 

 tion w^as present in the area of the left axilla to which the Petri 

 dish of straw^ siftings had been appHed. 



The second portion of the straw siftings in a Petri dish was 

 exposed to the \'apor of chloroform under a bell jar with a view 

 to killing any insect or acarine that might be present. These sift- 

 ings were then applied to the right axilla of the same volunteer 

 to whose left axilla the untreated siftings had been applied. The 

 chloroform evidently destroyed in the siftings the agent that 

 w^as producing the eruption for no lesions appeared after the ap- 

 plication of the chloroformized siftings. 



Dr. Goldberger further fished out of some straw siftings five 

 minute mites, and, placing them in a clean watch crystal, applied 

 the crystal to the axilla of another volunteer. At the end of 

 about 16 hours following this application, five of the characteris- 

 tic lesions appeared on the area to which the mites had been 

 applied. Plate V, fig. i- 



