_There are several of the Faculty, who, I readily acknowledge, have it more in their_ _Power to give the Public Satisfaction on this Subject, than I have, but their constant Engagements in the Duties of their Profession, will probably hinder those who are most equal to the Task, from executing it so speedily as public Utility requires: Wherefore, as some Information relative to it seems immediately wanted in several Places, the following, tho' less perfect, will perhaps in the mean time be neither unacceptable, nor wholly useless._ _If any thing in these Sheets should appear, to those who may be better acquainted with the Subject to be inaccurate, or premature; if some Things of little Weight should seem too largely insisted on, whilst others of more Consequence are neglected, this Apology will, I hope, be admitted;_ viz. _that to have delay'd the Publication of this Essay, till it had received those Advantages that further Observations might have added, would have frustrated my Design; which was, to prevent, as much as possible, the Mistakes that might happen in relation to this Disease, by speedily communicating the Remarks, which the Instances I had seen had afforded._ _As this Disease appears to be the same with that which raged in_ Spain, Italy, _and the neighbouring Countries, somewhat more_ _than a Century ago; it may not be improper, in the first place, to give some Account of it, from such of the Authors who then wrote upon it, as have come to my Hands, previous to a Description of the same distemper, as it now appears in this Country._ _'Tis said, that a similar, if not the same Disease hath long been in some of our_ American _Colonies, and the_ West-India _Islands, but as I have met with no Accounts of it from such as were competent Judges, it must be left to Time, and further Inquiries, to determine the Truth or Falsity of the Report._ _London_, Dec. 1. 1748. OF THE SORE THROAT Attended with ULCERS; As it appeared in _Spain_, _Italy_, _Sicily_, &c. The Disease which was called by the _Spaniards_ _Garrotillo_[1], by the _Italians_, and other Nations, _Morbus strangulatorius_, _Pestilens Faucium Affectus_, _Epidemica Gutturis Lues_, and by divers other Appellations[2], is said to have appeared first in _Spain_ about the Year 1608, to have spread from thence to _Malta_, _Sicily_, _Otranto_, _Apulia_, _Calabria_, and the _Campagnia_, in the Space of a few Years; and to have broke out at _Naples_ in 1618, where it continued upwards of 20 Years ravaging the different Parts of that Kingdom[3].