A diet very similar to that used in Iceland has also long been customary in certain islands in the Hebrides. The only agricultural crops which are very successful are turnips and potatoes. Cattle are kept in sufficient numbers to give one or two cows to each family. Some oatmeal is available and forms a constant, though not an abundant constituent of the diet. Many of the men are engaged in fishing and the unsalable parts of the cod form a regular and prominent part of the food supply. Milk, cod heads stuffed with livers, turnips, potatoes and oatmeal constitute almost the sole food supply of the poor crofters. The health of the people is excellent except that the incidence of tuberculosis among the natives is high.

The susceptibility of these people to tuberculosis is due in great measure to the irritation of the lungfs caused by constant breathing of the smoke of peat fires. Most of the houses are very primitive turf structures without windows, or with windows which are fixed. The roofs are thatched and are without chimneys. Peat fires are kept burning all day and most of the night, and the only means of exit for the smoke is through the thatch or through the doorway. This annoyance is tolerated because of the belief that the thatch, which is renewed annually and is applied to the land for fertilizer, is made more valuable by being saturated with the products of incomplete combustion of the peat. The cows are actually housed in one end of the house serving as the human habitation, and the manure is removed but once a year and placed directly on the land. The lungs are injured by the irritating smoke and this is believed to predispose them to tuberculosis.