MENTAL EVOLUTION 186 



less there is strong evidence that many persons must have died, 

 for the price of labor suffered a permanent rise of at least 10 per 

 cent. There simply were not people enough left among the 

 peasants to do the work demanded by the more prosperous classes 

 who had not suffered so much. 



After the famine came drought. The year 1325 appears to 

 have been peculiarly dry, and 1331, 1344, 1362, 1374, and 1377 

 were also dry. In general these conditions do little harm in Eng- 

 land. They are of interest chiefly as showing how excessive rain 

 and drought are apt to succeed one another. 



Some conception of the harm done by famine may be obtained 

 from the following figures. They show how anaemia and tubercu- 

 losis increased among the children of Germany during the Great 

 War on account of insufficient nourishment. 



This is a terrible record. Among the children twelve to fourteen 

 years of age an inadequate supply of food caused an increase of 

 nearly half in anaemia. Still more sinister are the figures for 

 tuberculosis — three times as much under conditions of malnutri- 

 tion as under those of a normal food supply. Can anyone doubt 

 that under the far le^ carefully regulated conditions of the four- 

 teenth century there was a still greater increase in sickness during 

 two such years as 1315 and 1316 when a large part of the people 

 of England were short of food most of the time.? In India during 

 the famines which arise from droughts one of the consequences 

 that is most dreaded is the infectious disease known as famine 

 fever, or relapsing fever. In fact, it follows famine almost every- 

 where. 



