208 TORPIDITY OF SWALLOWS >EPROSY. 



had all departed about' the seventh of October, were seen 

 again, for that one morning only, sporting between my fields 

 and the Hanger, and feasting on insects which swarmed in 

 that sheltered district. The preceding day was wet and 

 blustering, but the fourth was dark, and mild, and soft, the 

 wind at south-west, and the thermometer at 58^ ; a pitch not 

 common at that season of the year. Moreover, it may not be 

 amiss to add in this place, that whenever the thermometer is 

 above 50, the bat comes flitting out in every autumnal and 

 winter month. 



From all these circumstances laid together, it is obvious that 

 torpid insects, reptiles, and quadrupeds, are awakened from 

 their profoundest slumbers by a little untimely warmth ; and, 

 therefore, that nothing so much promotes this deathlike stupor 

 as a defect of heat. And farther, it is reasonable to suppose, 

 that two whole species, or at least many individuals of these 

 two species of British hirundines^ do never leave this island at 

 all, but partake of the same benumbed state ; for we cannot 

 suppose that, after a month's absence, house-martens can 

 return from southern regions to appear for one morning in 

 November, or that house-swallows should leave the districts 

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

 of days. 



LETTER LXXIX. 

 TO THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON. 



SELBORNE, January 8, 1 778. 



DEAR SIR, There was, in this village, several years ago, 

 a miserable 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 peeling 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 ; burden 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 



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