CH. V.] SICK POOR. 177 



therefore be taken as nearly the average condition of the 

 inhabitants of the parish. He has no cow nor other cattle : 

 his evidence is as follows : 



" Fifteen weeks ago fever broke out in my family, con- 

 sisting of my wife and eight children. I had no means of 

 removing them that were in health out of reach of the 

 contagion ; no neighbour would take any of them : I could 

 not expect any one to take fever into his house. The sick- 

 ness did not leave my cabin : ever since it has gone the 

 round of us ; as one recovered, another took sick : three of 

 us are lying at present. I had no means to procure either 

 medicine or the advice of a doctor. I went to the apothe- 

 cary, to ask him what nourishment I should give them : he 

 told me whey and toast, but I had no means of procuring 

 them. In the middle of their sickness, when one of them 

 would not eat a pennyworth in three days, I could give 

 them toast; but once they could eat anything, they 

 should eat the potatoes or die there. I had no whey for 

 them but what the neighbours brought us, not a third nor 

 a fourth of what they could use. The chief drink I gave 

 them was water and sugar : the wife used to sell the eggs 

 to buy the sugar ; and when the harvest came I thought 

 our potatoes were not half enough for us, and I knew I 

 would want them again when I could not buy them. I 

 used to carry six stone of them a mile into town on my 

 back, and sell them for 9d. : the whole family was sick, and 

 all lay in one room ; we had no second. Those that were 

 not yet down lay at one end of the cabin ; the sick lay 

 in one bed at the other. We had but one blanket and 

 a sheet for the whole family : we cut the blanket in two, 

 and covered the sick with one half, while the healthy 

 lay under the other. No part of the family had any 



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