Although Willan chooses the end of the year 1799 to enlarge upon the London fever, he does not connect it with the dearth that was already beginning to be felt (soup kitchens having been opened in various parts of London). The price of wheat, which had been steadily about 50_s._ in 1797 and 1798, rose in May, 1799 to 61_s._ 8_d._, after a hard winter which had probably injured the autumn-sown corn. The harvest turned out ill, and the price of wheat rose in December, 1799, to 94_s._ 2_d._ Bounties were offered on imported foreign grain, but in June, 1800, the price was 134_s._ 5_d._, falling in August to 96_s._ 2_d._ on the crops promising well. The latter end of harvest proved wet, much of the grain being lost, so that the price per quarter of wheat rose to 133_s._ in December. There was much suffering, and some rioting. Parliament met on the 11th November, 1800, on account of the dearth, the opinions of the members being much divided as to the causes of the high prices. In March, 1801, wheat was at 156_s._ 2_d._ per quarter, beef from 10_d._ to 10½_d._ per pound, mutton 11_d._ to 12_d._ per pound. It is to this year, when the quartern loaf was at one-and-eightpence, that a comparison by Arthur Young belongs, showing the great change in the purchasing power of wages[288]. By the end of summer, 1801, wheat rose to 180_s._, and the quartern loaf was for four weeks at 1_s._ 10½_d._ Whatever statistics were then kept of fever-cases, show a decided rise in the years 1800 and 1801: Manchester Glasgow London House of Royal Newcastle Bills of Recovery Infirmary Dispensary Mortality Year (fever-cases) (fever-cases) (fever-cases) (fever-deaths) 1796 371 43 201 1547 1797 339 83 65 1526 1798 398 45 67 1754 1799 364 128 -- 1784 1800 747 104 -- 2712 1801 1070 63 425 2908 1802 601 104 -- 2201 1803 256 85 352 2326 1804 184 97 255 1702 1805 268 99 74 1307 The London Fever Hospital was not opened until February, 1802, a small house in Gray’s Inn Lane containing sixteen beds. It came at the end of the epidemic, and was in small request during the next fifteen years. The same epidemic at Leeds was the occasion of opening a House of Recovery there in 1804, twenty-five years after Lucas had first called for it. The state of affairs in Leeds, which at length moved the richer classes to that step, is thus described by Whitaker[289]: