The history of the finding of the house dust mite

Symptoms of respiratory allergy caused by mites had been the subject of scientific interest in the years 1924 through 1930, when the Leiden pharmacologist Willem Storm van Leeuwen described a number of cases of mite-related allergic asthma (eg, in farmers after having been exposed to mite-infested wheat or oat).3 Storm van Leeuwen and his coworkers speculated that mites could also be involved in the origin of the mysterious "house dust allergen," which was particularly present in dust from damp houses, suggesting a biologic process. [...]this mite species could be identified in house dust samples from all over the world.