Ch. ii. in Sweden. 293 



received from Professor Nicander, this year alone 

 materially affected the average proportion of 

 births to deaths for the twenty years ending in 

 1795. This proportion, including the year 1789, 

 was 100 to 77; but abstracting it, was 100 to 75; 

 which is a great difference for one year to make 

 in an average of twenty. To conclude the cata- 

 logue, the year 1799, when I was in Sweden, 

 must have been a very fatal one. In the provinces 

 bordering on Norway, the peasants called it the 

 worst that they had ever remembered. The 

 cattle had all suffered extremely during the winter, 

 from the drought of the preceding year ; and in 

 July, about a month before the harvest, a con- 

 siderable portion of the people was living upon 

 bread made of the inner bark of the fir, and of 

 dried sorrel, absolutely without any mixture of 

 meal to make it more palatable and nourishing. 

 The sallow looks and melancholy countenances of 

 the peasants betrayed the unwholesomeness of 

 their nourishment. Many had died; but the full 

 effects of such a diet had not then been felt. They 

 would probably appear afterwards in the form of 

 some epidemic sickness. 



The patience, with which the lower classes of 

 people in Sweden bear these severe pressures is 

 perfectly astonishing, and can only arise from 

 their being left entirely to their own resources, 

 and from the belief that they are submitting to 

 the great law of necessity, and not to the caprices 

 of their rulers. Most of the married labourers, as 

 has before been observed, cultivate a small por- 



