DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 97 



swarmed in every part of her body her head, eyes, nose, 

 lips, gums, the soles of her feet, &c., tormenting her day 

 and night, till, in spite of every remedy, all the flesh of 

 her body being consumed, she was at length relieved by 

 death from this terrible state of suffering. Mouffet attri- 

 butes her disease to the Acarus Scabiei; but from the sym- 

 ptoms and fatal result it seems to have been a different 

 and much more terrific animal. He supposes, in this 

 instance, the insect to have been generated by drinking 

 goat's milk too copiously. This, if correct, would lead to 

 a conjecture that it might have been the A. Lactis, L. 



These cases I hope will satisfy you that mites, as well 

 as lice, are the cause of diseases in the human frame. 

 This, indeed, as has been before observed, is allowed on 

 all hands with respect to that of the itch ; and it is, cer- 

 tainly, not more improbable that man should be exposed 

 to the attack of several species of this genus, than that 

 three or four kinds of Pediculus should infest him. If 

 you are convinced by what I have written, you will con- 

 cur with me in thinking that the one are as much en- 

 titled to give their name to the disease which they pro- 

 duce as the other ; and the term Acariasis, by which, 

 with due deference to medical men, I propose to distin- 

 guish generically all acarine diseases, will not be refused 

 its place amongst your Genera Morborum. 



I shall now proceed to the remaining class of diseases 

 mistaken for Phthiriasis ; those, namely, which are pro- 

 duced by larvte. There are two terms employed by an- 

 cient authors, Eidte (EuAa*) and Scolex (JxcoA>j), which 

 seem properly to denote larvae ; but there is often such a 

 want of precision in the language of writers unacquainted 

 with Natural History, that it is very difficult to make 



VOL. I. H 



