34 ANIMAIi PAEASITE8 



or even to death. The toes are especially at- 

 tacked by the flea, although other parts of the 

 body are also visited. Persons who are stajdng 

 in the places where the flea is common, must have 

 their feet examined every two or three days. 

 When the animal has once made an entrance, the 

 orifice of the canal, which is marked by a red 

 point, may be sought, the passage widened by a 

 needle, and the flea drawn out, but without tear- 

 ing it. With fresh punctures it is , best to wait a 

 day, until the occurrence of the white vesicle, 

 that is to say, the swelling of the abdomen with 

 the brood, allows the animal to be more readily 

 detected. The cavity remaining after extraction, 

 is treated like a simple wound. In Brazil they 

 fill it with oil, snuff, or ashes. 



There are two animals remaining for us to de- 

 scribe, inhabitants of the human skin. One is 

 the acarus scahiei, or sarcoptes hominis, the itch 

 insect, which causes no end of trouble in and on 

 the skin. The other, and perfectly harmless para- 

 site, of man's cutaneous envelope, is the acarus 

 folliculorum, or pimple mite, of which Fig. 3 is 

 a representation. This is a very enlarged view 

 of the animal, since its true length is from one- 



