Synonyms for Acarus or Sarcoptes scabiei are: Acarus humanus-subcutaneus Linné), Acarus exulcerans (Linné), Acarus scabiei (de Geer), Sarcoptes hominis (Raspail), Sarcoptes galei (Owen), Acarus brachypus (Olfers), Acarus psoricus (Pallas), Cheyletus scabiei (Cloquet), Sarcoptes suis (Gerlach), Sarcoptes canis (Gerlach), Sarcoptes scabiei-crustosae (Fürstenberg), Sarcoptes vulpis (Fürstenberg) and Sarcoptes caprae (Fürstenberg).
To attempt to review thoroughly the mass of literature dealing with the subject is far beyond the scope of such a paper as this. I shall try to show that, although knowledge of a causative parasite for the itch seems to have existed early among the people, yet, as Besnier and Doyon have aptly said, the medical brain was not prepared to accept the idea for a long time.
Differences of opinion as to who first described the itch mite are common in the literature. Even though some of the earlier writers had such a creature in mind, their descriptions appear hazy.