Page:The Cottagers of Glenburnie - Hamilton (1808).djvu/245

 "Say ye sae," said limping Jacob the Presenter, rising from the seat he had just taken by the bedside; "ye speak with authority, I maun confess. But how can ye prove the danger?"

"It is easily proved," replied Mrs Mason. "You know that God has ordained, that life should be preserved by food taken into the stomach, and air breathed into the lungs. If poison is put into our food, we all know the consequence. Now it has been clearly proved, that poisonous air is equally fatal to life as poisoned food. By the breath of persons in fever, and other infectious diseases, the air is thus poisoned; and hence arises the necessity of admitting a current of air to carry of the infection."

"But, madam," said a pale-faced man, "if that were true, the air that gaed out, wad poison a' the toon. What say ye to that?

"I say," returned Mrs Mason, "that if you were to take an ounce or two of