Epidemiological environment
A hypothesis for any serious effect of the epidemiological environment on the observed fluctuations in stature should be rejected, since it was stable during the period under study (Kahan 1968: 353-77).
The frequency and intensity of epidemics in the period from 1725 to 1744, when the biological status rose, was not much different than in the two other periods from 1700 to 1724 and from 1745 to 1799 when the status declined. Consequently, it appears that the variation in the stature of recruits was due in the main to an increase in labour costs and a worsening of consumption among the lower social classes which were called up for military service. Direct information on working hours and consumption for the eighteenth century is not, however, available. Instead, let us turn to some indirect indicators—agricultural production, prices, obligations, and taxes.4.2