Twelve Diseases that Changed Our World. Irwin W. Sherman
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saw along that 100 miles of horrible country. I don’t believe they are our fault. I believe that there are not only many more of them than of old, but that they are happier, better and more comfortably fed and lodged under our rule than they ever were.” As the Great Famine gripped Ireland, thousands of Irish died each day. Few were felled from starvation alone: death invariably was visited upon the Irish because malnutrition made them more susceptible to diseases such as typhus, cholera, dysentery, and relapsing fever. Desperate to escape from virulent racism and prejudice, as well as starvation caused by the potato failure, the people of Ireland began a process of migration that changed the course of their history and that of Canada, the United States, and Great Britain.
Bite of Blight
Many of the great civilizations of the world were established by people who settled down and cultivated a staple food crop. In Southeast Asia it was rice, in Europe it was grain (wheat and rye), and for the Mayans and Aztecs in Central America and Mexico it was corn. The South American Incas cultivated a plant that grew well above the 10,000-ft level in the high valleys and cold plateaus of the Andes mountains. This plant had stems above and below ground level, and the swollen underground stems—called tubers—were highly nutritious. These tubers, which the Incas called “papas,” we call potatoes. The potato tuber is nutritious because it contains proteins, starches, and vitamins. The potato was the staple food source on which the Inca civilization was built, and even today it is one of the most important food crop plants in the world. Although rice, maize (corn), and wheat are the top three food plants, the potato ranks fourth. Indeed, one-fifth of the world’s people use the potato as their primary food source today.
The Incas first cultivated the potato over 6,000 years ago. When the Spanish Conquistadors under Pizarro came to the Americas in search of treasure, they destroyed the Inca civilization but discovered something more valuable than gold, silver, and jewels—the potato plant. This plant, perhaps the most priceless possession of the Incas, the Conquistadors did not even bother to record. By the late 1500s the sailors on Spanish galleons accidentally introduced these plants into Europe, where they were considered more of a curiosity than a foodstuff. They may have been rejected as a food because the potato is a member of the poisonous nightshade family. It was also claimed to cause leprosy, and even its reputation as an aphrodisiac did not make it acceptable. (The seductive Marie Antoinette, it is claimed, wore potato blossoms in her hair.) It was widely believed that eating potatoes caused flatulence, and so initially the tubers were fed to farm animals; however, since this caused no harm, the potato came to be accepted as a food fit for humans. By the 1800s, with an increase in the population of Europe and the inability of grains to support this population, the potato became a regular part of the diet. Easy cultivation and high yields in cool climates led to a major dependence on potatoes by populations on the high cold plateaus of Spain, the dank flatlands of Germany and Poland, and the soggy bogs of Ireland. The British landowners encouraged cultivation of the potato in Ireland since it saved the grain for export and for their own use. Furthermore, only in the southeastern part of Ireland is the soil suitable for growing grain (rye or wheat) from which bread can be made, but potatoes can be grown even in the poorest soils.
The Irish invented a highly efficient method of potato cultivation, called the “lazy bed.” The lazy bed is one in which the seed potatoes (“eyes” of the tuber) are placed helter skelter on the ground and covered with manure and seaweed, and then the soil dug from lateral trenches is piled on top so that long, narrow beds of soil are raised 2 to 3 ft above the surrounding ground. This protects the tubers from excess moisture. The cultivation of potatoes produces a high-yield crop (~30 tons/acre). Potato plants mature faster than most crops, taking 90 to 120 days, and edible tubers can be harvested in 60 days. The potato tuber is higher in protein than soybean, and half a potato can provide half of the human daily requirement of vitamin C.
Feudal systems tended to favor high birth rates because under such a system the number of dependents was a measure of a person’s wealth. Children were a cheap and expendable source of labor and could be relied on to provide assistance in one’s old age. In Ireland this led to a massive increase in the birth rate, and after the middle of the 17th century more newborns survived because there was a reduction in the death rate due to reduced infant mortality, tribal warfare, murder, and mayhem. In 1660 the population of Ireland was 500,000, but by 1688 it had doubled to 1.25 million. Between 1760 and 1840 it grew from 1.5 million to about 8 million. This explosive growth in the population of Ireland strained the economy and left many peasants living under bare subsistence conditions. As the Irish population grew, the land was further subdivided and living standards declined. The British government attempted to consolidate these small plots as a way of increasing grain output and also instituted Penal Laws which denied the Irish peasant population freedom. They were forbidden to speak their own language and practice their faith, to attend school or hold public office, to own land, or to own a horse worth more than £5. A peasant earned £7 per year, of which two-thirds was paid as rent. A pig, valued at £4 when sold, served as financial security for the peasant; it is from this that the term “piggy-bank savings” comes.
The English clergyman Thomas Malthus (1766 to 1834) wrote An Essay on the Principle of Population in 1798, in which he stated that a population that is unchecked increases in geometric fashion. The consequences of unrestrained population growth, in Malthus’ words, would lead to “misery and vice.” These would tend to act as “natural restraints” on population growth. Today we understand that there are at least two kinds of checks to set the upper limit for a population: external or environmental factors (including limited food, space, or other resources) and self-regulating factors (such as fewer births, deliberate killing of offspring, or an increased death rate due to accidents or disease). Agriculture in its most efficient form can change the environmental restraint so that far larger human populations are possible; however, even here there are limits. It is estimated that without the potato as a food source, all the land in Ireland could support a population of only 5 million if the people were fed on bread. Compounding the problem caused by potato blight, there was a worldwide shortage of bread grains at a price the Irish could afford. Between 1798, when Thomas Malthus’ Essay on Population was published, and 1845 there were 20 failures of the Irish potato crop, all leading to starvation, disease, and debility. These were true famines. During the same period, only three famines occurred in England. According to Malthusian doctrine, any increase in the Irish population would be due to their carnal and vicious nature. Famine would control this population explosion, and in Malthusian terms this was deserved. The Irish, the British opined, were hopelessly inferior and incurably filled with vice and so they deserved the famine, which would exert control over their excessive breeding. In effect, the Malthusian theory was used to reinforce British prejudice against the Irish and to justify the British failure to provide relief. There was also a laissez faire economic policy under which the British government adopted a hands-off policy. The attitude in Great Britain was to let the market run its course. By the end of 1846, not a single potato was left in Ireland. In addition, that year had one of the coldest winters on record. The level of starvation among the people soared.
Although in 1845 to 1846 Britain’s Prime Minister, Robert Peel, attempted some countermeasures, including the importation of corn for resale in Ireland, no one knew how to cook it, and in return the starving and enfeebled Irish were required to perform public work by building roads, walls, piers, and bridges. It helped only a little. Soup kitchens were started, but they dispensed essentially flavored water. The churches offered little hope since the Church of Ireland was entitled to collect taxes from tenants regardless of their religion. Indeed, the Catholic Church increased its ownership of property in Ireland during the famine. The Church was vehemently on the side of the absentee English landlords, and it was left to the Quakers to seek long-term relief for the Irish.
In late 1846 the British Parliament came under the control of a new Prime Minister, John Russell, who reduced the British financial commitment to Ireland. This placed a greater burden on landlords and private charities. The public works schemes were inefficient and bureaucratic, and the wages paid were very poor and very late. Tenant farmers held short-term leases that were payable each 6 months. If the tenants failed to pay their rent, they were evicted and their homes were burned.
There was a severe winter in 1846 to 1847. In the early months of