472 SANDY ISLE. DISEASES OF THE HIGHLANDS. 



Highlander in the islands where a sufficient supply of 

 oatmeal cannot be procured, and where the inhabitants 

 depend on the potatoe. If the rapid increase of popu- 

 lation, abundantly obvious throughout the country, had 

 not in itself a necessary tendency to increase the produc- 

 tion of this root and diminish that of grain, it is likely 

 that the experience of the people themselves will gra- 

 dually, however slowly, produce the same effect.* 



It has been often said that examples of longevity were 

 common in the Highlands, and the tale has been repeated 

 till it has almost become an axiom dangerous to doubt. 

 A well known and remarkable instance is often quoted 

 from Pennant, but it is probably a solitary one ; since 

 other inquirers have not found similar cases, and no 

 satisfactory evidence has been produced to justify the 

 general assertion. The tourist who hurries through the 

 country may perhaps adopt this notion, from the numbers 

 of old people whom he sees in the cottages, or engaged 

 in some sort of labour when nearly past the power of 

 labouring. But it must be recollected that the aged and 

 infirm continue to reside with their children when no 

 longer able to maintain themselves ; and that there is 

 no asylum, like the workhouse or hospital of England, 

 where these objects are concealed from the public view, 

 and almost lost to the public recollection. Hence the 

 aged are seen every where; and hence the easy but 

 superficial conclusion, that they are in greater proportion 

 here than in England. 



* It must be remembered however that there is a countervailing evil 

 in the use of the potatoe, which, however distant, is of a most important 

 nature. It is indeed obvious that the potatoe system, as it is called, is 

 making a rapid progress in many districts ; and it is to be feared that 

 in no long time the consequences that have followed it in Ireland will 

 also find their way into this country. 



