88 DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 



Acari, or mites, are the next insect sources of disease 

 in the human species, and that not of one, but probably 

 of many kinds both local and general. They are distin- 

 guished from Pediculi not only by their form, but also 

 often by their situation, since they frequently establish 

 themselves under the cuticle. With respect to local dis~ 

 orders, Dr. Adams conjectures that Acari may be the 

 cause of certain cases of Ophthalmia. Sir J. Banks, in 

 a letter to that gentleman, relates that some seamen be- 

 longing to the Endeavour brig, being tormented with a 

 severe itching round the extremities of the eyelids, one 

 of them was cured by an Otaheitan woman, who with 

 two small splinters of bamboo extracted from between 

 the cilia abundance of very minute lice, which were 

 scarcely visible without a lens, though their motion, when 

 laid on the thumb, was distinctly perceived. These in- 

 sects were probably synonymous with the Ciron des pau- 

 pieres of Sauvages a . Le Jeune, a French physician 

 quoted in Mouffet, describes a case, in which what seems 

 a different species, since he calls them rather large, in- 

 fested the white of the eye, exciting an intolerable itch- 

 ing 5 . Dr. Mead, from the German Ephemerides, gives 

 an account of a woman suckling her child, from whose 

 breast proceeded very minute vermicles c . These were 

 probably mites, and perhaps that species, which, from 

 its feeding upon milk, Linne denominates Acarus Lactis. 

 The great author last mentioned describes an insect, a 

 native of America, under the name of Pcdiculus Ricinoides, 

 which, upon the authority of Rolander, he informs us, 

 gets into the feet of people as they walk, sucks their blood, 



a On Morbid Poisons, 306, 307. b Mouffet, 267, 



Mcdica Sacrrt, 104, 105. 



