Extract of a Letter from Mr. B. Gooch, Surgeon, of Shottisham, Near Norwich, to Mr. Joseph Warner, F. R. S. and Surgeon to Guy's Hospital. Communicated to the Royal Society by Mr. Warner, November 16, 1769

XXXVIII. Extract of a Letter from Mr. B. Gooch, Surgeon, of Shottisham, near Norwich, to Mr. Joseph Warner, F.R.S. and Surgeon to Guy's Hospital. Communicated to the Royal Society by Mr. Warner, November 16, 1769. Shottisham, September 9, 1769. Dear Sir, According to your desire, and my promise, I have sent you the wonderful cuticular glove, which I shewed you, when I had the pleasure of your company here. The history of the case, which, I believe, has no precedent, is taken from the gentleman's own relation of it to me in writing, without varying his sense; and confirmed by Mr. Swallow, a surgeon of character at Watton, whose son, I know, was under your tuition. Mr. Swallow attended the patient many times in the fevers which produced these strange phenomena, with whom I took an opportunity of having a particular conversation relative to this matter, that I might be able to speak with the more authenticity. Mr. Swallow has now one of these gloves in his possession, the gentleman himself has another, and several he has given to the curious: yet some have been so sceptical as to doubt the matter of fact upon such evidence and authority. I wish you would get an accurate drawing of the glove; and I shall be glad to know, at your leisure, the sentiments of the learned, not forgetting your own, upon this extraordinary case. I am, dear sir, Your sincere friend, as well as obliged, humble servant, R. Gooch. History of the Case relating to the Cuticular Glove. Mr. WILLIAM WRIGHT, of Saham Tony in the county of Norfolk, attorney at law, about fifty years of age, rather of a weak and lax constitution from his youth, was first seized about ten years ago with the following singular kind of fever. The physical gentlemen he at different times consulted were at a loss to know what name or character to distinguish it by. It has returned many times since; sometimes twice in a year, attended with the same symptoms and circumstances; but not to so great a degree since the year 1764 as before; and it has been generally observed to come on upon obstructed perspiration, in consequence of catching cold, to which he is very subject. Besides Besides the common febrile symptoms upon the invasion of this disease, his skin itches universally, more especially at the joints; and the itching is followed by many little red spots, with a small degree of swelling: soon after his fingers become very stiff, hard, and painful at their ends, and at the roots of his nails. In 24 hours, or thereabouts, the cuticle begins to separate from the cutis, and, in ten or twelve days, this separation is general from head to foot; when he has many times turned the cuticle off from the wrists to the fingers ends, completely like gloves; and in the same manner also to the ends of his toes; after which his nails shoot gradually from their roots, at first attended with exquisite pain, which abates as the separation of the cuticle advances; and the nails are generally thrown off by new ones in about six months. The cuticle rises in the palms of his hands, and soles of his feet, resembling blisters, but has no fluid under it; and when it comes off, it leaves the subjacent skin very sensible for a few days. Sometimes, upon catching cold, before he has been quite free from feverish symptoms, he has had a second separation of the cuticle from the cutis, but then it is so thin as to appear only like scurf, which demonstrates the quick renewal of this part. * * The figure of one of these gloves is seen in Tab. XIV.