t 579 ] 
LXXVII. An Account of an extraordinary 
Difeafe of the Skin , and its Cure . Ex- 
tracted from the Italian of Carlo Crufio ; 
accompanied with a Letter of the Abbe 
Nollet, F. R. S. to Mr, William Wat- 
fon, F. R, S. by Robert Watfon, M. D, 
F. R. S. 
Read May i6, r ~g ^ H E difeafe, which lately befel a 
I 754- Ji^ young Neapolitan woman, being of 
an extraordinary nature, greatly excited the curiofity 
of the governors of the royal hofpital at Naples. 
Thefe gentlemen engaged Signor Crufio, the phy- 
fician of that hofpital, to whofe care this patient was 
committed, to draw up a faithful relation of the cafe. 
The Abbe Nollet, of the Royal Academy of Sciences at 
Paris, being delirous of having an authentic account 
of what he had heard had been fo much the fubjedt 
of difcourfe at Naples, procur’d by his friends from 
Signor Crufio a tranfcript of this relation ; and, be- 
lieving it not unworthy of attention, tranfmitted it to 
London. In a letter to Mr. William Watfon, the Abbe 
Nollet allures him, that the relation contains nothing 
but what is true ; “ becaufe, fays he, I have been in- 
“ form’d of the fad by difintereifed perfons, and be- 
<c caufe I know the writer of it to be a man of too 
“ much honour to be capable of attempting to im- 
«« pofe upon any one.” 
The hiflory of the difeafe is as follows. 
4 D 2 
A 
