The Prophet of Bethelnie. 193 



and Surgery, on reasonable terms, and in such a way 

 as would " render his future studies easy and agree- 

 able." And for lack of independently established practi- 

 tioners with the requisite skill, it became a common 

 practice with kirk-sessions to get a midwife trained 

 for the parish at their charge. 



Yet the needs of humanity are in all ages the same. 

 And hence the emergence of men, and women too, 

 claiming to possess a skill which, if not of the schools, 

 nor altogether so exact or definite as a more inquisitive 

 age would have demanded, was on the whole accepted 

 as adequate to the varied exigencies for which it was 

 sought. Science was not then in the ascendant ; faith 

 spread its wings unhampered by doubts about the 

 existence of the supernatural, and critical methods 

 had hardly yet found place. One of the most not- 

 able of this class of persons of whom I have seen any 

 reliable record was " Doctor " Adam Donald, known 

 as " the Prophet of Bethelnie." Adam, whose fame 

 was widely spread during a period of some thirty 

 years from about the middle of the century, was born 

 in 1703, and died in 1780. Dr. James Anderson* 

 published an account of the prophet ten years after 

 his death ; and he had the kindness to accompany it 

 with a fairly well executed woodcut portrait of him. 

 Apparently Adam knew for what purpose the picture 

 was taken, as he desired a certain sentiment to be in- 

 scribed below it. And the woodcut enables us to 

 know that he had been a goggle-eyed man, with a 

 double chin, long hair, and a short neck, whose 

 characteristic attitude seems to have been that of 

 standing with his feet apart, his arms hanging loosely 

 by his sides, and his hands placed back to back in 

 front tff him, the helpless look of the long crooked 

 fingers suggesting the notion that his wrists have been 

 at least partially dislocated. His dress is a Kilmar- 



* The Bee, Vol. VI. 1791. 

 H 



