Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 8.djvu/701

Rh shores of the Mediterranean, in the neighborhood of Cette and Montpellier. Their presence in this locality is due solely to the circumstance that large numbers of persons of both sexes and all classes come to these places to bathe, and, laying their clothes upon the sand, leave there a part of their vermin. Van Beneden suggests the surgical employment of the fleas an homeopathic phlebotomist, and recommends this region as an excellent source of supply in case his suggestion is adopted. The largest fleas are found upon the bat; they sometimes annoy the horse, and there is a species peculiar to monkeys.



The minute creatures known as Acari, or mites, are most of them parasitic, and they are very widely distributed. They are not true insects, but belong to the Arachnida, having four pairs of legs like the spiders, with head and thorax closely united. The group includes those disgusting creatures the itch-mites, magnified representations of which are shown in Figs. 16 and 17. The mammalia have each