296 AN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY LAIKD 



cannot have been more than five years old at this time, 

 but she survived to be Mrs. Carruthers of Dormont. 

 So deeply rooted was the belief in blood-letting as both 

 remedy and preventive, that people actually incurred 

 the trouble of letting blood from their cattle. Part of 

 the annual expense of making ready the English drove 

 was the fees of the cow-doctor for bleeding the nolt. 

 If Dr. Craufurd retained the confidence of his patients, 

 so did not another genius, who was called in to prescribe 

 for the laird 



'To Doctor Stevenson, whom I had called to 

 heali up my arm, didd me noe good but 

 worse than when he came to it . .770' 



Sir Alexander then sent for a certain Dr. Bazin, of 

 Liege, who came for a fee of 60 guineas and his ex- 

 penses, and stayed for 8 months and 6 days, furnishing 

 medicines at the rate of a shilling a day. Dr. Bazin 

 also received a fee of ten Carolus (11, 10s.) 'for 

 waiting on my wife & the whole children in the small- 

 pox.' When he went away he left three guineas' worth 

 of drugs to be sent down the laird's throat, and carried 

 off Sir Alexander's second son ' to cure him & learn 

 Latin & French conform to a signed contract.' For 

 this Dr. Bazin was to be remunerated at the rate of 

 24 guineas a year. Considering the relative value of 

 money then and now, this expenditure certainly cannot 

 be considered as consistent with the alleged penury of 

 the Scottish gentry. 



As an improving landlord, Sir Alexander had the 

 usual experience of one who meddles with agrarian use 



