Scotch Superstition.
A distressing accident occurred at the Drumpellier Tunnel Coalpit, Coatbridge, which resulted in the death of a child ten years of age. It seems that there is a notion prevalent among the colliers that the confined air of a coalpit acts as a powerful curative for whooping-cough. Acting upon this idea a collier, named Michael Dollan, had taken his son down to the upper seam of the pit where he was working, in order that the boy might have the advantage of the attribuuted remedial virtues of the vitiated air in curing a severe cought that he had been labouring under.
After being down for some time the child had left his father's side in search of drinking water, and having in the dark proceeded in the direction of the shaft, he walked right into it, falling a distance of 25 fathoms. When his body was brought to the surface it was found that his head had been literally crushed to atoms, and his body otherwise fearfully mangled. - Glasgow Herald.
Fifeshire Journal, 5th January 1871.
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