350 ON THE CONTAGION OF ITCH OR MANGE. 
who all agree that mangy goats frequently infect their keepers ; 
to which may be added the famous contagion, when ten men, 
employed in the Garden of Plants, were contaminated in 1827. 
“ I have, with great interest,” says Biott, “ since January 1827, 
had my eye on several men employed in the museum of natural 
history, who had caught the itch from looking after some goats 
suffering severely from it on their arrival from Africa. Ten of 
these men were admitted into the hospital St. Louis at the re- 
quest of Messrs. Cuvier, Geoffrey, Saint-Hilaire, and Desfon- 
taines. The eruption had assumed with several of them so 
much intensity, that it was followed by symptoms of gastroin- 
testinal inflammation, and in two of them, of vigorous constitu- 
tions, general infiltration, &c.” The number of individuals con- 
taminated, and the gravity of the symptoms, would give us 
reason to doubt the nature of the disease, even were the obser- 
vation not invalidated by its irregularity. Nobody sought for 
the acarus upon the diseased goats, nor was their presence sub- 
stantiated upon the men. It was not, indeed, until 1841 that 
M. Gervais gave an imperfect description of the acarus of the 
goat. One of these animals arrived at the museum, some 
months ago, likewise suffering from a disease of skin : I ex- 
amined him at Alfort, but found no acarus. 
Authors mention no instance of the transmission of itch from 
the goat and sheep to man. M. Dumenil found some insects on 
a dead kangaroo at the Garden of Plants, whose itchy skin com- 
municated a cutaneous disease to the assistant naturalists charged 
with the preparation of it. We have our doubt whether this 
transmitted disease was the itch ; since no sarcopte of the animal 
was found on the affected persons, and nothing is more common 
than to see the diseased skin of an animal not affected with 
mange cause impetigo or prurigo. As to the contagion of the 
itch (or mange) of the cat, M. Gol, to whom we are indebted 
for the facts, has met with but two observations : one of Hert- 
wig*, relating to a maid servant who had taken a cat into her 
bed which itch had rendered almost bald. After the first night 
she felt a smarting and itching in the soles of her feet against 
which the cat had lain, which in a few days extended over the 
body, and was greatly augmented by the heat of the bed. The 
itching was especially violent about the head, arms, hands, and 
knees, in which parts were to be seen little itchy pustules The 
other observation is from Dr. A. Berthold. He relates that a 
little girl was brought to him on account of an eruption ex- 
tending over the right side of her head and neck, the inner side 
of her right arm, & c. and which bore the greatest resemblance to 
Cooper — Jour. Hebdom. de Mid. Yit. 1836. No. 20. 
