524 General Deductions from the Bk. ii. 



support life, turns even a slight deficiency from 

 the failure of the seasons into a severe dearth ; 

 and may be fairly said, therefore, to be one of 

 the principal causes of famine. Among the signs 

 of an approaching dearth, Dr. Short mentions 

 one or more years of luxuriant crops together;* 

 and this observation is probably just, as we know 

 that the general effect of years of cheapness and 

 abundance is to dispose a great number of per- 

 sons to marry; and under such circumstances 

 the return to a year merely of an average crop 

 might produce a scarcity. 



The small- pox, which may be considered as 

 the most prevalent and fatal epidemic in Europe, 

 is of all others, perhaps, the most difficult to ac- 

 count for, though the periods of its returns are 

 in many places regular. f Dr. Short observes, 

 that from the histories of this disorder it seems to 

 have very little dependence upon the past or 

 present constitution of the weather or seasons, 

 and that it appears epidemically at all times and 

 in all states of the air, though not so frequently in 

 a hard frost. We know of no instances, I believe, 

 of its being clearly generated under any circum- 

 stances of situation. I do not mean therefore to 

 insinuate that poverty and crowded houses ever 

 absolutely produced it ; but I may be allowed to 

 remark, that in those places where its returns are 



* Hist, of Air, Seasons, &c. vol. ii. p. 367. 

 f Id. vol. ii. p. 411. 



