Manchester Me7noirs, Vol. Hi. (1908), No. 5. 5 



the rooms. By the use of considerable quantities of 

 naphthahne, and also ammonia, carbolic acid, and turpen- 

 tine, etc., it was eradicated from all the rooms except one, 

 to exterminate it from which all efforts failed. Each 

 morning the furniture of this room would be covered 

 over with a fine, white dust, which consisted of thousands 

 of mites ; the room could not be used on account of the 

 presence of the mite. It was at this juncture that I was 

 asked for advice as to the pest and its eradication. 

 Discovering that it was G. spinipes, I came to the conclu- 

 sion that it was in the stuffing of the furniture of the 

 room, which probably had served as the original source of 

 infection and distribution. I recommended the owners 

 to send the furniture and carpet away to be stoved, after 

 which the room was to be made as airtight as possible, 

 and fumigated several times with nicotine vapour at 

 intervals of a week or ten days ; after this procedure, the 

 paper was to be stripped from the walls, and the walls 

 and floor thoroughly washed with a fairly strong solution 

 of carbolic acid, and afterwards it was to be repainted 

 and papered. These recommendations were carried out 

 early in 1906. In August, 1907, I was informed on 

 inquiry that the mite had not returned, and that the 

 house was entirely free from the pest. To be certain of 

 eradicating the pest, the owners had disposed of the suite 

 of furniture after it had been stoved, as I had suggested 

 that it was the original source of infection. 



This case and others which have occurred point to 

 the necessity of having the materials, such as the stufifing 

 of chairs and mattresses, which are used in the prepara- 

 tion of the adjuncts of a comfortable age, properly treated 

 so as to render them unattractive by the absence of food 

 matter to such annoying pests as these species of Tyro- 

 glyphidae, which are not injurious to man, but become a 



