THE

FAMINES OF THE WORLD:

PAST AND PRESENT.

[Being Two Papers Read before the Statistical Society of London in 1878
and 1879 respectively, and Reprinted from its Journal.]

HARRISON AND SONS,

PRINTERS IN ORDINARY TO HER MAJESTY,

ST. MARTIN'S LANE, LONDON.

PREFACE.

SINCE these papers were read, the demand for copies has been considerable—far beyond the regulation allowance of author's copies: there was no way of meeting this except by the reprint of a limited issue.

As stated in Part II, the author is by no means confident that he has adopted the very best mode of treating the wide subject of Famines. He adopted that mode which seemed best suited to the Journal wherein the papers originally appeared; and the same arrangement is here retained.

BELSIZE PARK GARDENS, LONDON, N.W.

May, 1879.

My present subject has at once the advantage and the disadvantage

of being novel. I do not find that any previous writer has deemed

the subject of famines worthy of careful investigation. I could

not find, when I required to write upon the subject some two years

ago, that even a list of the famines. which had occurred in the

history of the world, so far as we know of that history, had been

compiled. I then made the chronological table, which I shall pre-

sently give, as a first effort in this direction. I felt that it must

necessarily be incomplete. I have since added to it, and begin to

hope that it is now sufficiently matured to be presented to this

Society.

It is not so much a mere table of famines, instructive as I venture

to think such records are, when compiled with any view to com-
pleteness, that I desire to bring before you this evening. There
are many
direct and indirect considerations arising out of the
subject, which naturally commend themselves for elaboration. Any-
thing affecting the food supply of the people has always been
regarded as of importance here. Famines too often affect the very
existence of the peoples among whom they occur. A table of the total
deaths resulting from famines, even in one generation of men, would
present a terrible picture. This can never be presented: the
materials for its compilation nowhere exist. I know of no more
terrible contemplation than that of the starvation of large numbers
of our fellow creatures. Some writers have appeared to look upon
famines as furnishing one of the necessary checks, upon what they