certain
remedy for various diseases. They are particularly efficacious for
curing barrenness, on which account it is frequently visited by those
who are very desirous of offspring. All the invalids throw a white
stone on the Saint's cairn, and leave behind them as tokens of their
gratitude and confidence some rags of linen or woollen cloth. The rock
on the summit of the hill formed of itself a chair for the Saint, which
still remains. Those who complain of rheumatism in the back must
ascend the hill, sit in this chair, then lie down on their back, and be
pulled down by the legs to the bottom of the hill. This operation is
still performed, and reckoned very efficacious. At the foot of the
hill there is a basin made by the Saint on the top of a large stone,
which seldom wants water even in the greatest drought, and all who are
distressed with sore eyes must wash them three times with this water."

Of such holy wells, it may be interesting to learn that there were,
previous to the Reformation, a great number throughout Scotland.[1]
They were usually called after saints, because of the cells of saints
being fixed near a spring. Hence these wells are usually in the
vicinity of old ecclesiastical sites, and in many cases where the wells
alone remain, they mark the place of those sites.

At these wells all diseases were supposed to be within the reach of
cure. A student of the development theory might almost find traces of
the growth of the specialist in them, for some of them acquired a fame
for the cure of special diseases. The Well of St. Fillan, at
Strathfillan, _e.g._, was famous for the cure of insanity; the Well of
St. Fillan, about which I write, as has already been noticed, was much
resorted to for the cure of barrenness; and if we transfer the virtue
of the waters to the credit of the Saint under whose auspices a cure
was wrought, we might say of St. Servan that he was considered a great
oculist; of St. Anthony, that he was an eminent specialist in the
treatment of children's diseases; for to the Well of St. Servan the
blind were led, to the Well of St. Anthony, sickly and "backgane
bairns." In accounting for the popularity of these wells, the
philosopher will reflect that there is a kernel of truth in most
widespread error. The truth in the well is the truth that underlay the
hydropathic treatment involved, also the treatment of fresh air and
exercise, and the extra exertion, the stimulus of change, a