Excerpt from ScabiesIN the days of our fathers scabies was a disease of frequent occur rence and was the pest of the village school, but it gradually died out under more cleanly ways of living, until in our generation it has become so rare that many physicians do not recognize it even when called upon to treat it. The frequent mistakes in diagnosis which arise through this want of familiarity, the importance of the imme diate recognition of its existence in a family, and its marked increase among us within a few years, lead me to ask the attention of the Society to some points connected with its nature, diagnosis and treat ment, as they were observed by me in the clinic of Prof. Hebra. Three forms of the itch insect are met with upon the skin, viz., the female, male and young. The mature female is discernible with the naked eye as a speck, line in length and 5. Line in breadth. It is of a white color, and resembles in form a tortoise shell, with an arched back and ¿at belly. The male is only half the size of the female, and, until recently discovered and described by Boeck and Danielsson 1n cases of Norway itch, was unknown. In structure it differs but slightly from the female. It is not white and shining like the female, but black and compressed. The young possess but three pairs of legs, and in them no distinction of sex is noticeable. In order to become mature they undergo, according to some writers, three metamorphoses, according to others only one. Whether all these changes are essential or not, it is at least a fact that the 6-legged form may be found containing within itself a visi ble 8-legged one. After maturity the females cease to creep over the surface of the skin, and remain in new burrows till sought after by the males. One coitus must suffice to impregnate the entire ova ry of the female, for after copulation she burrows deeper and deeper.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.