88 SUGAR-MITES. 
mites are sure to be found in immense numbers, and as they 
are equipped with all kinds of tools to reduce the fodder to 
dust, and as such spoiled material is only found in stables 

Fig. 52.—Tyroglyphus longior Gervais. 
Greatly enlarged. Original. 
not well cared for, it is not so very strange that animals 
forced to live in such places will soon show the presence of 
such mites by their restlessness and scabby appearance. 
Unrefined sugar sometimes swarms with minute mites 
(Pyroglyphus ( Acarus) sacchari) and Mr. Cameron of Dublin 
counted five hundred of them in ten grains of sugar, which 
means that one pound of sugar harbored more than one 
hundred thousand of these minute beings (fig. 53). This is 
a decidedly bad case of adulteration! The disease known as. 
‘“‘grocer’s itch’’ is said to be caused by the presence of such 
mites, which, like the true itch-mites, burrow under the skin 
of the hands of persons frequently handling such sugar. 
Dr. Packard received a peculiar Cheletus-like mite (fig. 
54 shows an allied species) from New Orleans, said to have 
been extracted from the human face. “Its body is oblong 
and square behind; the head is long and pointed, while the 
