464 Oj the Checks to Population Bk. ii. 



To the same causes, in a great measure, are at- 

 tributed the rheumatisms which are general, and 

 the consumptions which are frequent among the 

 common people. Whenever, in any place, from 

 particular circumstances, the condition of the poor 

 has been rendered worse, these disorders, parti- 

 cularly the latter, have been observed to prevail 

 with greater force. 



Low nervous fevers, and others of a more vio- 

 lent and fatal nature, are frequently epidemic, and 

 sometimes take off considerable numbers ; but the 

 most fatal epidemic, since the extinction of the 

 plague which formerly visited Scotland, is the 

 small-pox, the returns of which are, in many 

 places, at regular intervals ; in others, irregular, 

 but seldom at a greater distance than 7 or 8 years. 

 Its ravages are dreadful, though in some parishes 

 not so fatal as they were some time ago. The 

 prejudices against inoculation are still great; and 

 as the mode of treatment must almost necessarily 

 be bad in small and crowded houses, and the cus- 

 tom of visiting each other during the disorder still 

 subsists in many places, it may be imagined that 

 the mortality must be considerable, and the chil- 

 dren of the poor the principal sufferers. In some 

 parishes of the Western Isles and the Highlands, 

 the number of persons to a house has increased 

 from 4^ and 5, to Q\ and 7. It is evident, that if 

 such a considerable increase, without the proper 

 accommodations for it, cannot generate the dis- 

 ease, it must give to its devastations tenfold force 

 when it arrives. 



