A Letter to a Friend
A Letter to a Friend, by Sir Thomas Browne, the 17th century philosopher and physician, is a medical treatise of case-histories and witty speculations upon the human condition.
It is believed to be the source of a term Mary Leitao found in 2001 to describe her son's skin condition. She chose the name "Morgellons disease" from a skin condition described by Browne in Letter to a Friend, thus:
There is, however, no suggestion that the symptoms described by Browne are linked to the alleged modern cases of Morgellons.
In 1935, Charles Ernest Kellett MD FRCP, who lectured in the history of medicine at the University of Newcastle medical school, wrote a detailed criticism of Browne's Morgellons reference.
