PLAGUE-STRUCK ANIMALS 123 



results among animals as among men. It is in the 

 period subsequent to pestilence that the simplicity of 

 their lives gains by contrast. They have no social life 

 to be disorganized, no nexus of trade to be broken, no 

 famine to fear from untilled fields, no general weaken- 

 ing of the race from inherited weakness and nervous 

 disorders transmitted for generations from parents who 

 never fully recovered the ' plague terror/ The mental 

 shock transmitted by the Black Death produced 

 nervous disorders for two centuries the dancing mania 

 from Norway to Abyssinia, convulsions, hysteria, de- 

 lusions of all sorts, aggravated by famine and poverty, 

 the direct results of the plague. For animals, on the 

 contrary, there are no nervous sequel* to an epidemic. 

 The race is improved rather than impaired, for the 

 aged, the weak, and the unfit are dead, and only the 

 strong parents survive. The increase in fecundity an 

 increase noted even among the surviving European 

 population after the Black Death is very great, and in 

 place of being checked by famine due to untilled fields, 

 is fostered by the surplus of natural food for a reduced 

 number of mouths. 



