10 ; 
Tn addition to these cases among sailors, Doctors Goldberger and 
Schamberg examined or received authentic information concerning 
seventy other cases of this disease occurring in twenty different 
households in Philadelphia and its vicinity. 
In practically every instance they were enabled to determine that 
the patient had either recently slept upon a new straw mattress or 
had freely handled the same. Where only one person in a household 
was affected, it was found that he was the only one to occupy a bed 
supplied with a new straw mattress. They were able to trace all of 
the incriminated mat- 
tresses to four leading 
mattress manufactur- 
ers. Figures 4, 5, 6, 
and 7, from photo- 
graphs by Doctor 
Schamberg, show the 
condition of some of 
the victims and illus- 
trate different forms 
of the eruption. 
Careful investiga- 
tion warranted them 
inexcluding from con- 
sideration the ticking 
of the mattresses and 
the jute or cotton top- 
ping contained there- 
in. The cause of the 
disease was, therefore, 
circumscribed to the 
straw. Repeated in- 
quiries elicited the in- 
Fia. 6.—Lesions caused by bites of the mite Pediculoides ventricosus. formation that all of 
In this figure the eruptions are still more minute, covering the the manufacturers 
entire body, including the arms and neck, the hair having been 
removed from the neck to show their diffusioneven on the baseof had received, at the 
the head. ‘The lesions are also less swollen than shown in figure 5. time the disease-pro- 
ducing mattresses were made up, wheat straw from a dealer in 
Salem County, in southern New Jersey. One manufacturer had 
used straw from this source exclusively in the affected mattresses, 
while in another case the straw had come from southern Indiana. 
Finding of a parasite-—Doctors Goldberger and Schamberg sifted 
the straw from a mattress through the meshes of a fine flour sieve 
upon a large piece of plate glass covered with white paper. Close 
scrutiny of the siftings under strong electric illumination soon de- 
tected some slight motion. The moving particles were touched with 
[Cir. 118] 
