212 Tue BirTHPLACE OF ANNA LAURIE. 
This appears not to have been the case. You also show, which 
I was not aware of, that she was three years older than her 
husband, Alexander Fergusson. In the portrait which I have at 
Maxwelton of Annie and her husband she certainly looks the older 
of the two, and if the portraits were taken at the same time, which 
would seem to be probable, the circumstance is explained.” 
I may add that Sir Robert Laurie was first married to Marion, 
daughter of Sir Robert Dalziel of Glenae, their marriage contract 
being dated 21st April, 1662. Of that marriage there were born 
three daughters, one of whom became the wife of Alexander 
Ferguson of Isle, advocate. Sir Robert’s second wife, mother of 
the heroine of the song, was Jean Riddell, daughter of Walter 
Riddell of Minto. Anna’s marriage to Alexander Ferguson of 
Craigdarroch took place on 29th July, 1709. 
PHTHISIS AND SANATORIA. By Dr JaMEs MAXWELL Ross. 
Dr Maxwell Ross first showed a set of lantern slides 
illustrating the effect of the disease on the lung, the bacilli 
from which it originates, and methods by which it may be 
disseminated. Thereafter there were thrown on the screen 
tables and diagrams shewing the mortality from consumption 
in various countries. Those relating to England and Wales 
shewed a progressive decrease in the death rate from this 
cause in recent years, it having now fallen to 1.2 per 
thousand. The lecturer further stated that there was a 
more rapid fall in the death rate among females than among 
males. It might be that the dust occupations affected the 
latter to a greater extent; and factory legislation had probably 
affected females more than males. Taking into account the 
increase of population, the tables shewed that as compared with 
fifty years ago there was an annual saving of about forty thousand 
lives which under old conditions would have been sacrificed to 
this disease in England and Wales. The Registrar-General’s 
reports shewed that about seven thousand people die from con- 
sumption in Scotland each year, and that the mortality per 
ten thousand of the population had dropped in thirty years from 
27 to 16, representing a saving of nearly five thousand lives per 
annum. This gratifying improvement was more largely the 
result of what had been done by the sanitary authorities in large 
towns than of any change in rural districts or small towns. 
