70 . JCCOUNT of a DISTEMPER 



mumps, and glad to fee my obfcrvations fomewhat corrobo- 

 rated by fuch an authority. He thinks it contagious, — " An- 

 " gina hzEC ex epidemicis una eft, et contagiofa, et per totas 

 " domos grafTari folet, nifi antea fortaffe juvenes eodem morbo 

 " laboraverint." The laft part of this fentence implies an opi- 

 nion that people are not liable to have this difeafe more than 

 once. I do not remember an inftance of a perfon's having it a 

 fecond time. I have feen it go through a family of ieveral 

 children, which inclined me to think it contagious ; but when 

 I had the difeafe, not any one eMe in my family, which con- 

 Cfted of four children and fix adults, was attacked by it, al- 

 though my cafe was a very bad one. About twelve months 

 after my recovery, one of my daughters, about fix years old» 

 had the difeafe, and all the reft efcaped. And what is ftill 

 more remarkable, I do not remember an inftance,' in the fa- 

 milies where the militia foldiers ill of this diftemper were quar- 

 tered, of a fingle perfon's being infedled by them, 



Dr RussEL, p. ii6. relates a cafe of a patient deftroyed by 

 the mumps, nearly fimilar to that given in this paper. 



Hippocrates, fedl. i. book i. of his Epidemics, appears to 

 have defcribed the mumps. I (hall take the liberty to tranfcribe 

 the pafTage from Dr Freind's tranflation. 



" MuLTis vero aurium tumores fubnafcebantur, qui in al^ 

 " teram partem vergebant, plerifque etiam in utramque, iifque 

 " febre vacuis et in eredlum ftantibus nee decumbentibus, etfi 

 " nonnullis paulifper incalefcerent ; omnibus abfque noxa ex- 

 " tindli funt, neque cuiquam, velut ii, qui alias fui ortus cau- 

 " fas habent, fuppurationem fecerunt. Horum autem ea fuit 

 " natura, ut molles et laxi elfent, magni, diffufi aut fparfi, fine 

 " inflammatione et dolore. Omnibufqtie fenfim et fine ulla 

 " fignificatione evanefcerent. Fiebant ifta quidem adolefcenti- 

 "• bus, juvenibus, setate florentibus, atque horum plurimis qui 

 " in palaeftra, et gymnafiis exercebantur ; mulieribus vero pau- 



" cis 



