172 FIELD AND HEDGEROW. 
that organ to the abnormal action of the liver, possibly 
lung disease. Such trifling circumstances are not so 
trifling as they appear. A case came under my hotice 
quite recently when a person had been helpless from 
paralysis for several years. Chance compelled removal 
to another house, and very soon the paralysis began to 
disappear. The first house may have been damp, or there 
may have been some minute conditions besides, It 
certainly is a marked fact that in the country, at all 
events, one house is noted for its healthiness and another 
close by for its unhealthiness, and the cause is not trace- 
able to the usual and obvious reason of drainage or water. 
Any one who has noticed the remarkable influence of 
locality in the more evident vegetation—such, for instance, 
as lichens—will be able to suppose the possibility of 
minute organisms—microbe, bacteria, whatever you like 
to call them—being more persistent in one spot than in 
another. I have often thought of the half-magical art 
of the Chinese, Feng-shui, by which they discover if a 
place be fortunate and fit for a house. It seems to 
suggest something of this kind, and I think there isa 
great decal yet to be discovered by the diligent observa- 
tion of localitics. The experience of the rudest country 
rustic is not to be despised ; an observation is an obser- 
vation, whoever makes it; there has been an air of too 
much science in the affected derision of our forefathers’ 
wisdom . 
