Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 14.djvu/524

508 but by no means endorsed the idea that it was created by Mr. Cross or his electrical apparatus. It was not only a highly organized animal, and nearly allied to a well-known species, but it proved to be a female, containing eggs, which, as he dryly remarked, seemed an unnecessary complication in a new creation.



The sugar-mite, T. sacchari (Fig. 7), is most commonly found in brown sugars. It is large enough to be seen with the naked eye, and sometimes appears as white specks in the sugar. It may be detected by dissolving two or three spoonfuls of sugar in warm water, and allowing the solution to stand for an hour or so; at the end of the time the acari will be found floating on the surface, adhering to the sides of the glass, and lying mixed with the grit and. dirt that always accumulate at the bottom. In ten grains of sugar as many as 500 mites have been found, which is at the rate of 350,000 to the pound. Those who are engaged in handling raw sugars are subject to an eruption known as "grocers' itch," which is doubtless to be traced to the presence of these mites. They are almost invariably present in unrefined sugars, and. may be seen in all stages of growth and in every condition, alive and dead, entire or broken in fragments. Refined sugars are free from them; this is in part due, perhaps, to the crystals being so hard as to resist their jaws, but principally to the absence of albumen, for without nitrogenous matter they can not live. The sugar-mite is also found on the surface of jellies and preserves that have begun to dry, and on the sugar of dried fruit, such as figs, prunes, cherries, etc. They sometimes accumulate in the mouth of wooden taps used for wine and beer. In dismissing this part of the subject, which refers to mites infesting food, it seems proper to say that the