lypi. on coughs and colds. 115 



A Highlander's first step in the morning is into a 

 brook, for the purpose of wetting his feet. His. 

 house sometimes has no door to exclude a draught of 

 air, nor his window any glafs. He is indeed not much. 

 exposed to wet linen, but many tradesmen, by hard 

 labour, are in a continual perspiration, and have their 

 linen constantly wet. 



3d. There are none who doubt of the influenza; 

 being contagious. Its symptoms, however, differ 

 very little, except in their violence, from a commoa 

 cold. May it not be owing to its superior degree of 

 violence, that its contagion spreads wider than the 

 contagion of common colds ? It is needlefs to enlarge 

 upon a subject so generally known, and so often felt, 

 by many of your readers, ^s the effects of the influenza. 

 I was told by the captain of a vefsel, a man of honour 

 and veracity, that his bark carried the influenza in 

 the year 1784,. first into Shetland, and then to the 

 Orkneys. It had raged all that spring' on the main 

 land ; but, till he arrived, the distemper had not ap- 

 peared in those islands. But in twenty-four hours 

 after his landing, the whole inhabitants were seized 

 with it ; and the same thing continued to happca. 

 invariably at every island where he touched. 



4th. Common colds are sometinaes little lefs conta- 

 gious. Two writers of veracity Mr Martin and the 

 levd. Mr Macalloch, afsure us that the steward of 

 St Kilda, on his annual visit to collect the rents of 

 that island, generally carries this contagion with 

 him, and tliat the whole inhabitants are violently 

 ailected by it in a few days after liis arrival. 



