OF SELBORNE. 237 



suppose that two whole species, or at least many individuals 

 of those 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 

 martins 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. 1 



LETTER XXXVII. 



TO THE HONOURABLE DAINES BARRING TON. 



SELBORNE, Jan. 8, 1778. 



HERE 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 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 accouut 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 



1 A more obvious explanation of the appearance of swallows in No- 

 vember is that they are late broods from the north ; and those seen in 

 March are early arrivals on their way northwards. ED. 



