PHTHIRUS INGUINALE. 191 



his corrupted blood. This was probably a fancy originating in 

 their red colour : but the whole history, whether we consider the 

 size and colour of the animals, or the places from which they issue, 

 is inapplicable to larva? or maggots, and agrees very well with 

 mites, some of which, particularly Leptus autumnaUs, are of a 

 bright red colour. The other case, and a very similar one, is that 

 recorded by Mouffet of Lady Penruddock ; concerning whom he 

 expressly tells us, that Acari swarmed in every part of the body — 

 her head, eyes, nose, lips, gums, the soles of her feet, &c, tor- 

 menting 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 attributes her 

 disease to the Acarus Scabiei ; but from the symptoms 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 gene- 

 rated by drinking goat's milk too copiously. This, if correct, would 

 lead to a conjecture that it might have been the A. Lactis, L."* 



In warm countries, the flies are so numerous about the persons 

 of the sick that the utmost care is requisite to prevent the gene- 

 ration of larvae from the eggs, which they deposit not only in 

 wounds and abscesses, but in the nostrils, mouth, &c, sometimes 

 penetrating to the brain itself, and causing death. t In the same 

 way maggots are sometimes bred in the patches of cutaneous 

 eruptions, as described by Professor Murray of Gottingen, in a 

 case of leprosy, i Swediaur once saw a young woman, thirty 

 years of age, in the Westminster Infirmary, who was covered with 

 minute pustules and tubercles, swarming with animacula; over 

 the whole body.§ 



The generation of lice, in connection with Prurigo senilis, 

 though not fatal, is frequently a very troublesome and obstinate 

 malady; and a great many external applications have been resorted 

 to from ancient times to destroy these loathsome and irritating 



* Introduction to Entomology, v. i. p. 97. 



f See. Dr. Lempriire's Observations on the Diseases of the Army in Jamaica, 

 vol. ii. p. 182. 

 J Obs.de Verm, in Lepra obviis, p. 25. 

 § Nov. Nosol. Melh. Syst.u. 233. 



