50 ITCH-MITES. 
Illinois and Minnesota. Theleather from the hides appeared 
disfigured with pits from one to six millimeters in width, 
which in many cases penetrated nearly through its entire 
thickness. 
B. ITCH-MITEs. 
(Sarcoptide). 
In former times, and even quite recently, doctors did a 
very strange and unheard of thing; they disagreed among 
themselves, and this about the cause of a well-known disease 
called the itch. They did so because they could not always, 
easily and readily find the itch-mites in the burrows made by 
these parasites. Consequently other explanations for the 
itch were given such, as ‘‘special fermentations,” ‘‘thickened 
bile,” “irritating salts,” “drying of the blood,” “melancholic 
juices,’ and other equally convincing ones. During the late 
war, when the itch became very common, and for some very 
good reasons too, they invented such terms as ‘‘army itch” 
or ‘‘seven-year’s itch.’’ A soldier having the latter disease 
could of course not expect to become well in a few days or 
weeks, and was consequently sent home to spread the itch 
among other people. 
Itch-mites are the cause of a disease called acariasis or 
itch in man, of mange in horses, hogs, dogs, and cats, and 
of scab in sheep and chickens. Wherever this disease occurs 
it is invariably caused by these parasites, which burrow in 
selfmade tunnels in the skin of their hosts, live free upon 
them or snugly hidden under scales or hairs. They either 
feed upon the blood of their host, or gnaw and destroy the 
younger epidermal cells. Ithas beenclaimed, but not proven, 
that these mites inject a poison in the skin to cause a more 
rapid flow of blood to the injured spot. Since these mites 
live in or upon the skin all internal applications or remedies 
are in vain, because they do not reach the source of the evil, 
and can not kill the invaders without killing the host. 
The itch-mites, a number of which are illustrated, have 
flat bodies, with a striated skin, and a roundish or squarish 
