The creepy-crawlies

History: About 340 years ago, an English physician, philosopher, and collector of odd things, Sir Thomas Browne, described a strange illness he had apparently encountered years earlier in children in Languedoc, a region in the southeast corner of France. The illness began with coughs and convulsions—symptoms which resolved, Browne said, when "harsh" (coarse?) hairs appeared on the backs of the sufferers. The only other thing Browne related about this disease was its name—Morgellons.

Condition: Morgellons, or at least a condition given the same name, has now reappeared, in the form of an illness in which sufferers are tormented by the sensation that bugs are crawling under their skin. This is accompanied by itching, as well as the sense of being stung or bitten. Many sufferers find relief by scratching or picking. What binds this new condition to Browne's description is the appearance of red, blue, or black fibers or granules in the picked skin. Sometimes, when doctors examine under high magnification the sites of sensations, similar fibers are seen embedded below the skin's surface.

Effect: Morgellons disease makes people miserable.

Go to www.slate.com/id/2183153/ for article....