312 NATURAL HISTORY 



that house swallows should leave the districts of Africa 

 to enjoy, in March, the transient summer of a couple 

 of days 2 . 



I am, &c. 



LETTER XXXVII. 



TO THE SAME. 

 DEAR SIR, SELBORNE, Jan. 8, 1778. 



THERE was in this village, several years ago, a miser- 

 able 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. This scaly eruption usually broke out 

 twice in the year, at the spring and fall ; and, by peel- 

 ing away, left the skin so thin and tender, that neither 

 his hands nor feet were able to perform their functions; 

 so that the poor object was half his time on crutches, 

 incapable of employ, and languishing in a tiresome 

 state of indolence and inactivity. His habit was lean, 

 lank, and cadaverous. In this sad plight he dragged 

 on a miserable existence, a burthen to himself and his 

 parish, which was obliged to support him till he was 

 relieved by death, at more than thirty years of age. 



The good women, who love to account for every 

 defect in children by the doctrine of longing, said that 

 his mother felt a violent propensity for oysters, which 

 she was unable to gratify ; and that the black rough 

 scurf on his hands and feet were the shells of that fish. 

 We knew his parents, neither of which were lepers ; 



a It appears a more obvious explanation of the appearance of the 

 swallows in November, that they are late broods from the north ; and 

 that those seen in March, are early arrived birds on their way to the 

 north. When on their migratory journeys, they always hawk for flies, as 

 Mr. White describes. RENNIE. 



