History
Scabies is an ancient disease. Archeological evidence from Egypt and the Middle East suggests that scabies was present as early as 494 BC. The first recorded reference to scabies is believed to be from the Bible (Leviticus, the third book of Moses) ca. 1200 BC. Later, in the fourth century BC, the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle reported on "lice" that "escape from little pimples if they are pricked"; scholars believe this was actually a reference to scabies.
Nevertheless, it was Greek physician Celsus who is credited with naming the disease "scabies" and describing its characteristic features. The parasitic etiology of scabies was later documented by the Italian physician Giovanni Cosimo Bonomo (1663–99 AD) in his famous 1687 letter, "Observations concerning the fleshworms of the human body". With this (disputed) discovery, scabies became one of the first diseases with a known cause.
Read more about this topic: Scabies
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“English history is all about men liking their fathers, and American history is all about men hating their fathers and trying to burn down everything they ever did.”
—Malcolm Bradbury (b. 1932)
“The history of our era is the nauseating and repulsive history of the crucifixion of the procreative body for the glorification of the spirit.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)
“We know only a single science, the science of history. One can look at history from two sides and divide it into the history of nature and the history of men. However, the two sides are not to be divided off; as long as men exist the history of nature and the history of men are mutually conditioned.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)