T 
[ 410 3 
V. Fart of a Letter from Mr. Macky, Fvo~ 
fejfor of Hiftory, to Mr. Mac Laurin, Fro- 
fefor oj Mathematics in the Unmerjity of 
Edinburgh, and by him communicated to the 
Prefident of the Royal Society 5 being 
an Extract from the Books of the Town- 
Council ^Edinburgh, relating to a Difeafe 
there , fuppofed to be Venereal, in the Tear 
1497. 
Read March . ^ p the Venereal Difeafe was never 
‘ 7 ‘ I742 ' 3 ‘ known in Europe till the Siege of 
Naples 1495, it mud have made a very quick Pro- 
gress through Europe in a fhort timej for in 1497, 
I find it raging in Edinburgh , and our King and his 
Council terribly alarmed at this contagious Diftempcr, 
as appears from a Proclamation of King James the 
IVth, in the Records of the Town-Council of 
Edinburgh. The Minute of Council is dated the 2 2d 
of September. I have taken a Copy of it for your 
Amufemenr, and, if you pleafe, you may communicate 
it to the Society. I have pretty nearly obferved the 
old Spelling, except in Numbers. 
“ 22. Sept r • 1497 . 
cc TT is our Soverane Lords Will and the Command 
“ ^ of the Lordis of his Counfale fend to the Proveft 
<c and Baillies within this bur 1 that this Proclamation 
“ followand be put till execution for the efchewing 
“ of the greit appearand danger of the Infettion of 
“ his Leiges fra this contagious ficknefs callit the 
“ Grandgor 
