Lyme disease in the eighteenth century .

Susan O'Connell indicated in her review that Lyme disease may have been present in Europe for over 100 years, although the term was not coined until the mid-1970s.1 In 1764 and 1771 the Reverend Dr John Walker visited the Hebrides to report on their economic potential. In the section on Jura he wrote, “Over the highlands in general there are fewer people to be observed either lame or decrepit than in any other country perhaps in Europe. But in the island of Jura, the cripples are remarkably numerous; owing to a very singular disease with which this island is peculiarly infected.

“This disease arises from a worm lodged under the skin, that penetrates with exquisite pain, the interior parts …