Ways of Dying in 1665

well, got that wrong then! Very interesting, not heard of the sweating sickness before - wonder what it was? [curious]

I think sweating sickness was a bit mysterious, it appeared, hung around for a couple of hundred years and then just vanished. I don't think they have an explanation for it now.

Didn't they do PMs a bit further back? I'm sure they did to Catherine of Aragon, and found a black growth on her heart (?) but thought it was due to poisoning rather than (presumably) a form of cancer.

My eyesight is getting worse.

I'm not sure mega, I don't think a conclusion has ever been reached.

megapixels - I'd guess it was malaria, aka the ague - but not sure. MAlaria was endemic in the UK until the 1950s, when we got rid of all the bastard mozzies with DDT, hence they decided to use it all over the vast areas of Africa and other malarial places - but it didn't work because the mozzies were too good at finding other places to breed. UK = far too small for them to evade it (although there is now a risk that it's coming back thanks to global air travel, especially in areas around international airports)

oh ha ha ha!! i just bought a load of bramleys to make a pudding for tomorrow, dh had better be VERY nice tonight!

i think as the recession goes on and more and more people look to grow their own fruit and veg, a lot of this old folklore will be remembered, i knew about rhubarb leaves and deadly nightshade berries etc etc because my dm is a very keen gardener - thanks for the thoughts on the yew trees in churchyards, im inclined to think that it must have pagan origins as most religious sites are built over pagan worshiping areas.

Crikey. Well, my eyesight is fine but I am a bit put off apples ...

Good old Wikipedia: Sweating Sickness

OK - re cyanide poisoning - I don't know if this is true for cyanide but it may well be - if you chronically low dose yourself with some poisons, then you raise your tolerance to them because the liver will produce the detoxing enzymes necessary to get rid of them on a more regular basis (see alcohol tolerance, drug tolerance). This is why regular alcohol intake is "safer" than binge drinking, because the liver will hold a pool of detoxing enzymes for the alcohol for a short period; but if it's not used in that time, it'll let it go, meaning that when you need it, the liver has to make all those detoxing enzymes from scratch again, which takes longer, and the alcohol can do more damage while it's waiting.

However, on googling, I got this:
Effects of cyanide consumption
Chronic consumption of cyanide-containing foods eventually can result in ataxia and optic neuropathy. Defective cyanide metabolism due to rhodanese deficiency may explain development of Leber optic atrophy, leading to subacute blindness. Cyanide also may cause some of the adverse effects associated with chronic smoking, such as tobacco amblyopia. (See Prognosis and Presentation.)

So if your eyesight is suffering, pack it in with the apple pips!

This is one of the best threads I've read on MN. It had only three pages when I started reading and I've been following it most of the morning. Not that I know anythingmuch to contribute.

What is "sweating sickness" or "The Sweat"? I know it was common around the time of Henry VIII but what exactly is it?

frida - I have no idea! In all seriousness I wouldn't try it. It's about as sane as boiling willow bark 'to see if it really works as a painkiller'.

Did I mention my mate was one of this life's biggest and most enthusiastic druggies?

Jericho have PM'ed you

Ah, ok, I could have sworn he used the hairy ones - he nicked them out of the botanical gardens. But I may be wrong, or maybe orientals have a bit but not as much?

I'm not recommending the practice, you understand.

Does it have to be vodka? Only I cannot drink alcohol, I wander what else might work?

TSP good luck for your viva!!!

Thanks for the tip on the examiners I'm hoping to submit by May and have the viva in September. I don't mind too much if it's delayed though, I imagine it'll take forever to find a job and wouldn't mind staying enrolled whilst I look.

I have tons of those in my garden Thumb.

Oh damn. I chew apple pips because they taste nice.

Mind you I have been doing this since childhood and I eat about 4-6 apples a day. Am I going to pop my clogs sometime soon?!

these are opium poppies, not the hairy stemmed big reds (oriental poppies), Jericho. Mind you, I don't know if you can still get opium out of the orientals as well, quite possibly! Or something similar.

Oh dear, I love apple pips. I eat 3-4 apples a day. Maybe it's low grade permanent cyanide poisoning I have, not asthma.

Bitter almonds contain the most cyanide of any fruit pit. And about 50 bitter almonds in one go would be enough to kill a full grown man. Apricot kernels = next down in cyanide content, I think.

Mostly when we eat apple pips, we don't bite them and are therefore protected from the cyanide because we can't digest the casing; but if you bite them you break the casing and allow the kernel to be digested --> cyanide release.

at aye.

Disturbingly, there is a trendy recipe I saw for steeping peach pits in Marsala - doesn't sound like a great idea!

Incidentally, if you get the seed pods from those pretty, hair-stemmed red poppies (Opium poppies), let them go semi-dry and then slash the sides and put them to steep in a jar of vodka, you can get yourself monumentally high/dead.

A mate of mine at university was an organic chemist and he tried this, but only drank a tiny sip and just spent the evening having very, very strange dreams.

Peach pits-they also are a handy source of cyanide. The bit in the middle of the pit.

Don't eat too many apple seeds because A TREE WILL GROW IN YOUR STOMACH, as any fool knows.

Scarlett how rotten for you.

No, my examiners have not yet been appointed and my planned end date of September would be for finishing writing, not for having the viva done. I am happy to wait on the viva as I have some teaching lined up for Autumn term.

I did hear of someone waiting a whole year, though!

thumb - eek! I take the warning.

Doesn't bitter almond contain quite a lot of cyanide, too?

Don't eat too many apple seeds though - apparently my remembered info is a little off and if you eat enough of them they can produce enough cyanide during digestion to harm you. And don't even think about it with other tree-fruit seeds.

I Love this thread but have to go to bed because it's gone 1:20am and I am Tired.