228 ' LEPUOSY. 



for one day ; and that not as if they were in actual migra- 

 tion, but playing about at their leisure, and feeding calmly, 

 as if no enterprise of moment at all agitated their spirits. 

 And this was the case in the beginning of this very month ; 

 for, on the 4th of November, more than twenty house- 

 martins, which, in appearance, had all departed about the 

 7th of October, were seen again, for that one morning only, 

 sporting between my fields and the Hanger, and feasting on 

 insects which swarmed in that sheltered district. The pre- 

 ceding day was wet and blustering, but the fourth was dark, 

 and mild, and soft, the wind at south-west, and the thermo- 

 meter at 58, a pitch not common at that season of the year. 

 Moreover, it may not be amiss to add in this place, that 

 whenever the thermometer is above 50, the bat comes flitting 

 out in every autumnal and winter month. 



From all these circumstances laid together, it is obvious 

 that torpid insects, reptiles, and quadrupeds, are awakened 

 from their profoundest slumbers by a little untimely warmth, 

 and, therefore, that nothing so much promotes this death- 

 like stupor as a defect of heat. And, farther, it is reasonable 

 to suppose, that two whole, species, or at least many indivi- 

 duals of these two species of British Mrundines, do never 

 leave this island at all, but partake of the same benumbed 

 state ; for we cannot suppose that, after a month's absence, 

 house-martins can return from southern regions to appear 

 for one morning in November, or that house-swallows should 

 leave the districts of Africa to enjoy, in March, the transient 

 summer of a couple of days. 



LETTEE LXXIX. 



TO THE SAME. 



SELBOENE, Jan. 8, 1778. 



DEAR SIR, There was in this little village several years ago, 

 a miserable pauper who from his birth was afflicted with 

 a leprosy, as far as we are aware, of a singular kind, since it 

 affected only the palms of his hands and the soles of his feet. 



