;o ACCOUNT of a DISTEMPER 



mumps, and glad to fee my obfervations fomewhat corrobo- 

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

 gina hsec ex epidemicis una eft, et contagiofa, et per totas 

 " domos grafTari folet, nifi antea fortafte 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 leveral 

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

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

 fided 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 infected by them. 



Dr Russel, p. 116. relates a cafe of a patient deftroyed by 

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



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

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

 the paffage 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 erectum ftantibus nee decumbentibus, etfi 

 " nonnullis paulifper incalefcerent ; omnibus abfque noxa ex- 

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

 " fas habent, fuppurationem fecerunt. Horum autem ea fuit 

 " natura, ut mollies et laxi eflent, magni, diffufi aut fparfi, fine 

 " inflammatione et dolore. Omnibufque fenfim et fine ulla 

 u fignificatione evanefcerent. Fiebant ifta quidem adolefcenti- 

 "■ bus, juvenibus, aetate florentibus, atque horum plurimis qui 

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



" ciG 



