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his medical experience, was one of the most fertile sources of disease, 
and particularly of disease of an epidemic character. It was at 
once, particularly in great towns, a predisposing cause to every form 
of pestilence ; and by depressing vitality, it interposed the greatest 
obstacles to a cure. He thus endeavoured to demonstrate that the 
administration of adequate relief to paupers was indispensable for the 
public good, and a necessary measure of sanitary precaution. 
These principles were, over a series of years, reiterated by Hr 
Alison, and pressed upon the public attention with all the fervour 
of deep conviction and ardent benevolence ; and they were seconded 
within our own locality by the occurrence of alarming epidemics, 
which could not fail to rivet the public attention on the subject. 
If it is not presumptuous to say so, we seem to have reason to 
infer that the infectious nature of certain diseases is designed by 
Providence to quicken our interest in our fellow-creatures, and to 
remind us that our own welfare depends, in a great degree, on the 
health and happiness of our neighbours. As a conflagration in 
an adjoining house makes us tremble for our own safety, so the 
prevalence of fever or pestilence in the poorer classes of our own 
city excites in us the fearful anticipation that the mischief may soon 
extend to us or to our children. It was the object^f Hr Alison to 
prove (and I think he succeeded in proving), that if we wish to 
avert epidemic and infectious diseases from our own doors, we must 
attend to the physical as well as moral condition of our fellow- 
citizens, and must establish a certain and sufficient provision for the 
poor. 
The theoretical opinions of Hr Alison would probably have led him 
to exact a legal provision even for the able-bodied poor, but subject 
always to the condition that no one should receive support who was 
not ready to work. The practical question, however, scarcely ex- 
tended to this point ; and the result of the discussion finally was, 
that the views of Hr Alison obtained a triumph over those of an 
opposite tendency. The Poor Law Act of 1845 was passed; and 
a system of Poor Law relief was thereby established, which, I ven- 
ture to say, deserves the highest commendation, and is fraught with 
signal benefits to the social condition of Scotland. The Scotch 
Poor Laws had always recognised a legal right to relief in the 
impotent poor; but, in practice, the frugality or parsimony of the 
national character had led to great abuses, by restricting the allow- 
