Eee 
212 INSECTS AFFECTING DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 
When it has completely covered the head, it extends by degrees over the whole 
body; it is then impossible to describe the miserable condition of the poor animal, 
which the parasites are devouring as if it were a dead carcass—the feebleness is so 
great that it totters on its limbs and can scarcely drag itself along. AJ] its skin is 
a focus of infection, where crusts and entangled hairs form pieces like hideous shells, 
and which pieces tear off in plates. It is true that they rarely reach this extreme 
stage, being usually destroyed before the disease passes through all the stages 
of complication. Still plenty of dead cats that have had the disease bad enough 
may be seen in the dust carts and on the manure heaps of all great towns. The 
most of them are either killed or die in cellars of houses where they have taken 
refuge. 
In the country the complaint is much rarer, the opportunity for contagion being 
much less; but when it appears there it runs its course as rapidly as in towns. M. 
Delwart, of Brussels, said, in 1830, that he had seen on large farms, where a great 
many cats were kept, the malady spread itself with such rapidity that in four or 
five weeks all the cats had been carried off by the infection, and in 1827 M. Sajous, 
a veterinary surgeon, residing at Tarbes, related that a very intense epizootic itch 
had raged in that district among the cats for several years, and it proved so mur- 
derous that entire villages remained wholly deprived of cats. The malady seems to 
vary in virulence at different times, and when very bad it is called epizootic, when 
milder sporadic; differences which may be due to the character of the season or 
general robustness of the animal’s health at different times. 
The symptoms are the same in the rabbit when it is infected. 
The remedies that are used for the itch in man should be used for this variety, 
and of course modified in their administration to suit the different characters of 
the patient. 
In the country the cats may occasionally in autumn be seen suffering from great 
irritation, and people are apt to jump to the conclusion that they have got the itch. 
But it is always easy to tell whether it is so or not, for if the itch it shows itself 
about the head and nose and ears, and if, instead of that, the irritation is about the 
feet, ten to one it is caused by the harvest mite, Leptus autumnalis, which the cat 
has caught in wandering about the garden, and usually on examination the matter 
can be put beyond doubt by finding the little red mite in the fur or between the 
claws of the cat. If kept from getting a fresh supply, it will soon get better, for 
the mites will soon leave it of their own accord; but if allowed to get a fresh 
supply every day, it will of course get worse and worse as long as the supply is 
renewed. 
Another variety of this species is the rabbit mite, var. cuniculi, which 
produces the same symptoms in rabbits and hares. 
THE ItcH MITE OF FOWLS. 
(Sarcoptes mutans Robin and Lanq.) 
This species is a parasite on the domestic fowl. Weowe our knowledge of it to 
M. Lanquetan, M. Reynal, and Professor Robin. A full description, with careful fig- 
ures, will be found in the Bulletin of the Society of Moscow, 1860. It is a very flat, 
broad species, and the absence of spines on the back at once distinguishes it from | 
all the preceding. The ailment produced by it is observed most frequently on the | 
hen and cock, appearing first on the feet, on the comb, and about the beak. No pre- 
monitory symptoms indicate its approach. The fowls preserve their appetite and 
liveliness, although sometimes a careful observer may see that the sick animals shake 
their heads, raise and stretch their legs in a convulsive manner. If the examination 
is followed up some white points and lines traced in zigzag, covered by very small 
scales, which the least rubbing knocks off, may be seen on the comb. The skin 
Ris 
