| The years
before 1697 had been very difficult,
especially for the poor, and most people were
poor, both in Sweden and what is now Finland.
The crops had failed from 1695 to 1698, due to
bad weather. In Finland 200,000 people died
from starvation - almost half the population.
A lot of hungry and poor people from around
Lake Mälaren had come to Stockholm to beg and
seek help. They were housed in an old
building, built as a ropewalk, at
Skeppsholmen. The authorities made a list of
1,400 people.Two hundred years ago the
population looked different than today. For
one thing, there were more than twice as many
children. Child mortality was twenty times
higher then it is today. But if you survived
your childhood, you had a great chance of
growing old. There were many illnesses that
were a big threat, especially to children. |
|
| These included
rickets, malaria, smallpox, dysentery and
whooping cough for instance. Since people
started to keep cattle tuberculosis and
smallpox followed. Measles and whooping cough
have been a serious threat to the lives of
children throughout history. It was not until
people started to live closer together in
cities that these illnesses started to become
epidemic. The adults became immune but when
the children got measles and smallpox it often
caused their death. Dysentery was very serious
during the years of starvation 1695-98. It was
spread by bad water and its symptoms were
fever and diarrhoea. |
|
