Not only were the habits of the people contributory to the diffusion of eruptive disorders, but likewise their food, of which oatmeal was the staple, whilst vegetables were few, fruit rare, and tea unknown. Hence many maladies had free course; and as Dean Ramsay relates, a girl on her arrival at Mrs. Betty Muirheid’s boarding-school in the Trongate, Glasgow, when asked whether she had had smallpox, replied, “Yes, mem, I’ve had the sma’pox, the nirls [measles], the blabs [nettle-rash], the scaw [itch], the kink-host [whooping-cough], the fever, the branks [mumps], and the worm [toothache].” * * * * * A last word as to Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. After a residence of twenty years in Italy, she returned to England to die, 21st August, 1762. On the west side of the north door in Lichfield Cathedral, there is a female figure, in marble, leaning on an urn inscribed M. W. M. The inscription runs-- SACRED TO THE MEMORY OF THE RIGHT HONOURABLE LADY MARY WORTLEY MONTAGU, WHO HAPPILY INTRODUCED, FROM TURKEY, INTO THIS COUNTRY, THE SALUTARY ART OF INOCULATING THE SMALLPOX. CONVINCED OF ITS EFFICACY, SHE FIRST TRIED IT WITH SUCCESS ON HER OWN CHILDREN, AND THEN RECOMMENDED THE PRACTICE OF IT TO HER FELLOW-CITIZENS. THUS, BY HER EXAMPLE AND ADVICE, WE HAVE SOFTENED THE VIRULENCE, AND ESCAPED THE DANGER, OF THIS MALIGNANT DISEASE. TO PERPETUATE THE MEMORY OF SUCH BENEVOLENCE, AND TO EXPRESS HER GRATITUDE FOR THE BENEFIT SHE HERSELF RECEIVED FROM THIS ALLEVIATING ART, THIS MONUMENT IS ERECTED BY HENRIETTA INGE, RELICT OF THEODORE WILLIAM INGE, ESQ., AND DAUGHTER OF SIR JOHN WROTTESLEY, BART., IN THE YEAR OF OUR LORD, MDCCLXXXIX. Whilst we do not resort to epitaphs for truth, we may discover in them what was taken for truth, or what was wished to be taken for truth. We have in the foregoing epitaph the legend which has caught the popular fancy, and which is likely to survive corrections innumerable. It is the custom of mankind to identify a common movement with some prominent or picturesque figure in the movement, and to suppress the rest. The practice is convenient, but it taints all history with fable. * * * * *