for the decrease is general, viz. the draining of marshes and wet grounds, the cultivation of wastelands, the improved cleanliness of the habitations of the poor, &c. are correct; and no doubt all these have operated, more or less, in this district; still there seems something else wanting for the complete elucidation of the change that has so universally taken place in this respect. At no period could there have existed marshes to any extent, or stagnant ditches or ponds, or even wet lands, in any part of this district. Certainly, causes of this kind could not, at any time, have existed in a greater degree than they now exist in Scotland, where ague is, and always has been, totally unknown. None of the practitioners, old or young, had ever met with a case of ague in a miner, or streamer,[1] which could, with any degree of probability, be attributed to causes immediately connected with the occupation of such persons. And this is a curious and important fact, as proving, in a very decided manner, that neither impure air simply, nor wet, nor the alternation of cold and heat, nor all these combined, can give rise to fevers of this type.
Hepatitis and Scirrhous Liver.—These diseases appear to be rather more frequent than I should have supposed a priori, although certainly not more frequent than in other parts of the kingdom. I have been so much accustomed to consider organic diseases of the liver and spleen as so much more prevalent
- ↑ A streamer is a surface-miner, who searches for tin ore in the alluvial soil in the vallies, and on the banks and in the channels of the numerous stream; of the district. His employment necessarily exposes him to much wet.
