OF THE HUMAN SKUST. 41 



from ttat time to this (1872) there has not failed 

 to exist medical men or naturalists who deny the 

 connection between the disease called itch and the 

 itch-mite. It is with medicine as everything else 

 in the world — denial of truth excites notoriety, 

 so desired by the many. 



In view of what we have above said, it seems 

 impossible to conceive that a correct knowledge 

 of the itch-mite should be, since Bonomo's time, 

 repeatedly lost in some of the great centres of 

 medical teaching, to be again regained. In 1812, 

 a prize was offered in Paris for the discovery of 

 the little insect ; and a certain apothecary, named 

 Gales, gained it, by exhibiting before a medical 

 commission the cheese-mite. Consequently those 

 who searched patients with itch did not find this 

 animal, and a prize was once more offered ; and 

 Easpail showed the cheese-mite again, and, when 

 the judges were satisfied, proved it was such, and 

 exposed Gales' duplicity. The cause of the itch- 

 mite had henceforward its adherents and oppo- 

 sers ; whilst, in various parts of the world, the 

 lowest classes understood it, and the methods of 

 its destruction ; for instance, the old women in 

 Corsica, who picked them out with needles. 



