Note 3 — Chapter XII · PROPHYLAXIS: OR THE MODE OF PREVENTING DISEASE.

Some time ago, some fagots were sent into the Lings coalpit, belonging to the Wingerworth Coal Company, for the purpose of filling up the chasm over the timber, where the roof had given way. A bough of hawthorn was carelessly thrown aside in an opening, and it is now in full leaf and blossom. A branch of it was brought out at night; but the leaves, and blossoms also, began to flag in a few hours after it was exposed to the fresh air. There is still a part of the thorn in the pit, 500 yards from the bottom of the shaft, in a healthy growing state; all the difference observable between a thorn growing on the top of the ground, and the one above named, is, that the leaf is quite white, and the blossom without smell.