VOL. XVIII.J PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 671 



the Ingenious, in the month of July, 1 693, letter the 30th, I found an obser- 

 vation, which he has published to the world, concerning the cure of this dis- 

 ease of worms by one Sarah Hastings, who was famous in the discovery of them 

 in the face, gums, and tongue ; and which she managed with such dexterous 

 art in the operation, that she took them out of any part affected with a goose- 

 quill. I was hence solicitous to inquire out, if there were any of the worn^ 

 doctresses now in being ; and hearing of one famous at Leicester, I was resolved 

 to write to her, describing all the symptoms as plain as I could explain them ; 

 to which I had a return, that she believed my disease to be worms ; and being 

 resolved to try the experiment, I took coach for Leicester, where being come, 

 my doctress, Mrs. French, no sooner inspected the place, but instantly declared 

 her opinion, that the distemper proceeded from worms. The next day she fell 

 upon her operation, which was performed in the presence of two aldermen of 

 the town, Mr. Gibbs, my lord of Derby's chaplain, and several others, 

 when piercing the part affected with a lancet, she drew some blood, and soon 

 after with a small spatula, and another instrument with which she opened the 

 orifices, she picked out 5 or 6 worms at a time. She plainly showed them to 

 the spectators as they came out of the flesh ; they were all alive, and moved 

 their heads, and are somewhat less then ordinary maggots. Thus in less than 

 8 days she took out of my tongue more then 100 worms, all nearly of the same 

 size, except two very large ones, which she said were of a cankerous pro- 

 duction; she took more than 30 out of my gums, which last operation is her 

 daily practice ; persons of good note resorting to her from all parts of the 

 country thereabouts. I was very curious to inquire out what cures she had 

 done of this nature ; and I found a very satisfactory account from persons of 

 some quality and note. The cures the woman performs in picking out these 

 worms from all putrefactive ulcers, tumours, and sores, whether in the faces 

 noses, gums, or tongues of several persons prove that such animals are gene- 

 rated in those parts. 



Extract of a Letter from Mr. Edward Lhwyd, to Dr. Lister ; giving some 

 farther Account of the Fiery Exhalation in Merionettishire. Dated Oxford, 

 Aug.23,\QgA. N°ai3, p. 223. ' 



An intelligent person,* who lives near Harlech in Merionethshire, assured 

 me the fire still continues there ; that it is observed to come from a place called 

 Morva-bychan in Caernarvonshire, about 8 or y miles off, over part of the sea. 

 That cattle of all sorts, as sheep, goats, hogs, cows, and horses, still die apace : 



* See Philogophical Transactions, N* 208.— Orig. 



