134 WORLD-POWER AND EVOLUTION 



in writing. Nevertheless it is interesting to find that Wolf, the 

 chief authority on this subject, considers that so far as can be 

 judged from the Chinese records the years 1370-1385 were noted 

 for sunspot maxima, while an absolute maximum greater than for 

 many centuries apparently took place about 1372. This at least 

 lends probability to the supposition that the whole fourteenth 

 century was a time of unusual solar disturbance. Thus we are 

 led to infer that if solar disturbances should increase still more 

 the earth would again enter a glacial period. 



Let us inquire further into the effect of this approach to the 

 conditions of a glacial period in the fourteenth century. Take 

 England for example. According to Thorwald Rogers the severest 

 famine ever experienced in England was that of 1315-1316, and 

 the next worst was in 1321. In fact, from 1308 to 1322 great 

 scarcity of food prevailed most of the time. Other famines of 

 less severity occurred in 1351 and 1369. "The same cause was 

 at work in all these cases," says Rogers, "incessant rain, and cold, 

 stormy summers. It is said that the inclemency of the seasons 

 affected the cattle, and that numbers perished from disease and 

 want." After the bad harvest of 1315 the price of wheat, which 

 was already high, rose rapidly, and in May, 1316, was about five 

 times the average. For a year or more thereafter it remained 

 at three or four times the ordinary level. The severity of the 

 famine may be judged from the fact that previous to the Great 

 War the most notable scarcity of wheat in modern England and 

 the highest relative price was in December, 1800. At that time 

 wheat cost nearly three times the usual ^ount. During the 

 famine of the early fourteenth century "it is said that people 

 were reduced to subsist upon roots, upon horses and dogs; and 

 stories are told of even more terrible acts by reason of the extreme 

 famine. But we must hesitate before we give credence to the 

 stories found in chroniclers, picked up as they were, no doubt, 

 from rumors current in the country, and amplified before they 

 reached the monastery in which they were recorded." Neverthe- 



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