Medicine: Itchy?

One reason why Napoleon kept his hand inside his coat so much may have been because he was scratching himself. He suffered from Sarcoptes scabiei, the barely visible mite which causes scabies—commonly known as the itch.

The crablike animalcule is most at home burrowing under the skins of people who do not wash much. But it moves easily to those who do wash, if they come too close.

During the war, the itch spread throughout the Continent and erupted into an annoying problem for many British schools. UNRRA has reported that the epidemic has now become worldwide. Druggists in Washington, D.C. have noticed that more & more people come in to ask why they itch. A dermatologist on Manhattan’s Park Avenue admits that cases have increased. No official statistics are available because the disease is not reported to health departments and most victims are reticent.

The itch does not clear up by itself. Scratching only spreads it. The old-fashioned treatment was heroic: sulfur ointment—which often caused another kind of skin eruption—and boiling sheets! and clothes (now known to be unnecessary) every time they were used. In recent years dermatologists have been curing itchers with benzyl benzoate, which causes less rash. They are now experimenting with a concoction of DDT, benzyl benzoate to kill the mites and a secret ingredient which kills the eggs, in the skin-deep burrows.

Well-scrubbed people who catch scabies have one consolation: their itch is probably milder than the type that makes the unwashed scratch.