36 ANIMAL PARASITES 



sometimes occur singly ; sometimes several, ten 

 to twenty, are found in the contents of one folli- 

 cle. When in large numbers, their presence may 

 possibly cause an acne-like eruption. We have 

 often smiled at the success of the advertising 

 quacks, who pretend to treat diseases of the skin, 

 in duping their victims, and in fact the public in 

 general, in reference to this harmless animal. 

 When a sebaceous follicle becomes, on the face 

 or nose for instance, distended by its natural con- 

 tents, the orifice of the follicle is filled with a 

 soft, cheese-like substance, to which dirt and dust 

 adheres, presenting the appearance of a little 

 black dot on the skin, over the centre of a whit- 

 ish minute protuberance. Pressing with the nails 

 each side of this, and we caa force out a small 

 cylinder of greasy substance, the black dot being 

 one end of it. Now from this resembling a mag- 

 got with a black head, it is generally supposed to 

 be one ; and the quack tells his clients that it is a 

 worm of the skin, supporting his assertion by the 

 statement that worms live in the skin. What the 

 true pimple mites are, and their comparative size, 

 you, however, now know; and, shall we say, 

 should' not be again duped. 



