Frost or microbes

Abstract

One of the key questions in historical demography is whether the population catastrophes of the pre-industrial era Europe were primarily caused by hunger or by epidemics, that is, on the final count, by frost, drought or floods, or by microbes spreading diseases. The solution to this problem is rendered more difficult by the fact that the causes of death were not recorded and that even the most skilful doctor would have been unable to make such records in most cases, because starvation may have increased the death-risk of the sick. Furthermore, the social moves caused by the lack of food also contributed to the spreading of the epidemics.