5io CHAINS OF CIRCUMSTANCE 



sometimes in autumn from fifteen to twenty-five persons in that distemper. 

 He does not remember to have seen a single person in the ague for 20 

 years past. 



A Perthshire record reads : " The ague, which used greatly 

 to prevail here (St Madois parish) as well as in other parts 

 of the Carse of Gowrie, is now hardly known [in 1792]." 

 In Kirkcudbrightshire, it was written in 1744 "agues 

 formerly prevailed very much. There has not, however, 

 been one instance of this disorder for 9 or 10 years past [in 

 the parish of Borgue]." In Berwickshire agues had "almost 

 totally disappeared" in 1 792, and the virulence of the disease 

 had much diminished, though, in some districts, it "still 

 returns with such unexpected frequency and force as often 

 baffles all speculation concerning it." And lastly the records 

 of Kelso Dispensary, which I have examined, show that the 

 number of cases treated there declined after 1781, from 161 

 in that year, to no in 1782, after which a gradual fall is 

 noticeable, so that after 1797 they did not exceed 10 in any 

 year, and after 1840 completely disappear. 



But what has all this got to do with the influence of 

 man upon animal life ? The old writers who have recorded 

 the facts of the prevalence of ague in Scotland and of its 

 disappearance could not have answered the question. To 

 them the miasma of the marsh was a sufficient cause of the 

 disease, though some essayed other speculations. Marshi- 

 ness, foggy atmosphere, mean houses, defects in cleanli- 

 ness, and lack of animal food all bore the blame for the 

 mysterious pestilence. Since marsh miasma was the gener- 

 ally assigned cause of ague, the decrease of the latter was 

 generally put down to the drainage of mosses and bogs. Two 

 interesting suggestions of the Scottish chronicles of the late 

 eighteenth century are worth mentioning in view of later 

 discoveries. The Rev. Mr Samuel Smith of Borgue parish 

 in Kirkcudbright held that the disappearance of "intermittent 

 fevers" could not be assigned to the disappearance of bog 

 land since in his district "no mosses or marshes have been 

 drained, of any consequence, for many years past," and he 

 suggests that 



when land is deepened and pulverised in consequence of improvements, by 

 lime, shells arid marls, it absorbs the rain more quickly and plentifully. 

 Hence less moisture will arise in evaporation; less water will run along the 



