54 
these islands, looked on as next to a 
crime, because thereby the population 
might increase to such a degree, as to be¬ 
come ruinous and oppressive to the whole 
community. For this reason, a regula¬ 
tion was made against marriage, unless 
when the parties could produce evi¬ 
dence that they possessed L. 40 Scots, or 
L. 3 : 6 : 8 sterling. This salutary law 
is now never enforced, to the great pre¬ 
judice of the whole inhabitants. It is 
curious to observe how the principles of 
Mr Malthus accommodate themselves to, 
and receive illustration from, the smallest 
societies. 
The secluded inhabitants of these so¬ 
litary isles are very unhealthy, and seem 
to complain of one general disorder, 
which is of a phthisical and scrophulous 
nature, the cause of which evidently 
seems to be this: the men are exposed* 
to intense cold at the fishing, where they 
remain twenty-four, thirty, and some- 
