40 ANIMAL PAKASITES. 



warmth, as I myself had previously stated in Giinsburg's ' Zeits- 

 chrift.-' Dancing, the long junction of the heated hands of the 

 dancers in warm ball-rooms (but not every simple contact of the 

 hands), the carrying of young children by itchy nurses (when the 

 latter lay their bare hands upon the nates of the children), 

 sleeping with itchy subjects, or taking possession of their beds 

 whilst still warm, and putting on clothes and linen which they 

 have just worn, are the principal agents of infection. In general, 

 however, there is too much fear of wearing clothes which have 

 been long left off by the patients. Even the greatest cleanliness 

 is no protection against the itch, of which I am one of the most 

 convincing examples, as notwithstanding my daily custom of 

 washing my body morning and evening with soap and water, I 

 was infected when a lad of seventeen on a holiday journey 

 towards home. 



The summer alone perhaps furnishes no favorable momentum 

 for the infection ; but this is perhaps only apparent, because 

 common people prefer going into the hospital in the idle time, as 

 Schinzinger has already mentioned. Men are affected much 

 more than women, on account of their occupation (in the propor- 

 tion of 12 to 1). The seat of the disease also varies according 

 to the sex. Men are very soon and readily affected on the penis ; 

 women rarely in the generae organtivs ; but the itch is very easily 

 communicated from infected nurses to the genitalia of children 

 in arms. The more delicate the skin, the more is it disposed to 

 infection. Whether a certain degree of hairiness facilitates the 

 transfer, as mites willingly climb upon hairs, is a question still 

 undecided, the investigation of which I have already suggested, and 

 in favour of which the more frequent occurrence in men is an 

 argument. Schinzinger, Hebra, &c., have prepared the following 

 table according to trades, descending from the most favorable 

 occupations to those less favorable : tailors, shoemakers, joiners, 

 male and female servants, day labourers, and factory labourers 

 (the last three denominations in pretty equal numbers), girls of 

 the town, bricklayers, book-binders, paper-hangers, bakers, hat- 

 makers, tanners, whilst the soap-boilers, according to Schinzinger, 

 are quite free, and it is well known that potters are very rarely 

 attacked. 



The geographical distribution of the itch is universal, in south 

 and north, in inland districts, and on the sea coasts (Greenland, 

 the coasts of Schleswig-Holstein in the last war), and both in 

 the Old and New worlds. 



