DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 93 



epistle dedicatory, the editor speaks also of these Acari, 

 as living in burrows which they have excavated in the 

 skin near a lake of water ; from which if they be ex- 

 tracted with a needle and put upon the nail, they show 

 in the sun tlieir red head and the feet witli which they 

 walk''. And to close my veteran autliorities, Junius 

 thus explains the word Acarus, as I find him quoted in 

 Gouldman's useful dictionary, ''A small worm, which 

 eats under the skin, and makes burrows in itching 

 hands ^." 



In more modern times, microscopical figures have 

 been added to descriptions of the insect. Bonomo first 

 furnished this valuable species of elucidation. His 

 figures, however, which are copied by Baker in his 

 work on the microscope, are far from accurate''. Those 

 of De Geer and Dr. Adams are much more satisfactory, 

 and mutually confirm each other''. From them it is 

 evident that the same insect inhabits the scabies of 

 Sweden and Madeira. Dr. Bateman, in the letter 

 before alluded to, informs his correspondent, that be 

 had seen that from Madeira, and gives it as his opinion, 

 that there cannot be a doubt of the existence of an 



ex Aristotele videtur asserere ; nam illi extra cutem vivunt, hi vero non. 

 ubi snpr. 



* Imo jpsi Jcari^T^e. exiguitate indivisibiles, ex cuniculis prope aqua; 

 lacum quos foderunt in cute, acu extracti et unfile itnpositi, caput lu- 

 brum, et pedes quibus gradiuntur ad solem produnt. p. vi. 



** Teredo sive exiguus vermiculus, qui subter cutim er&dit agitque cu- 

 niculos in pruriginosis manibus. Gouldman tells us these jlcari were alsiJ 

 called Hand-tBorins. Another English name is given in Mouffct, viz. 

 Wheale-vsorms. 



" Osservazioni intorno a pellicelli del corpo umano fatte dal Doitjor Gio Co« 

 siino Bonoflio, &c./, 1-3. Baker On Microsc. i, t. 13./. 2, 



" De Geer, vii. f. 5. /. 12-14, 



