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Original poster

Ways of Dying in 1665

840 replies

TheScarlettPimpernel · 04/02/2012 11:36

So I'm just copying out a weekly Bill of Mortality from London, 1665 (don't ask!)

Look at some of the ways of dying - anyone care to hazard a guess at what some of them might be?!

Plague - 7165 (IN A WEEK!!!)
Childbed - 42 Sad - just goes to show, it's all very well bemoaning medicalised childbirth/interventions/CSs but look at the alternative
Grief - 3 (Not bloody surprising - wonder what the actual medical cause was?)
Griping in the Guts - 51!
Rising of the Lights - 11 (WTF was that then? In offal, are the lights the lungs, right?)
Kingsevil - 2 (Don't ask me how I know this, but I believe this to be scrofula)
Wormes - 15 (OH EM GEE, you could die of worms )
Impostume - 11 (what?!)
Frighted - 3 (three people scared to death in a week Shock)
Winde - 3 (Oh yeah. FARTED TO DEATH)

I realise I am a bit morbid Hmm

OP posts:
Original poster
TheScarlettPimpernel · 04/02/2012 14:23

Dreaming and Jericho - I'm sure you've thought of this already - but have you got your examiners agreed?

I ask because I didn't start looking until the last couple of months, and my supervisor and my uni were both SHITE, and I had to wait SEVEN MONTHS for my Viva, instead of the stipulated three. The wait was horrendous especially as all around me people who submitted months after me and are nowhere near as smart kept getting their PhDs all over the place. Mine is now arranged for 29 Feb, 48 hours after I get back from 2 weeks abroad Hmm

Anyways good luck to you both and enjoy it. . . you might find (like me) that the euphoria of finishing lasts about 3 days and then you plunge into the melancholy of someone for whom life no longer has any real meaning

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JerichoStarQuilt · 04/02/2012 14:20

'How far along are you' always sounds like pregnancy to me. I am in my third year and hoping to finish by September (though my last meeting suggested that may be optimistic Sad).

I am wanting to go back and work on something much more gruesome now, though!

ScoutJemAndBoo · 04/02/2012 14:20

Am taking a break fromthe fascinating thread, given I have lost three hours to it!

JerichoStarQuilt · 04/02/2012 14:17

Shit, I eat apple pips! Shock

dreamingbohemian · 04/02/2012 14:17

Thanks Jericho!

How far along are you? Good vibes right back at ya Smile

I'm supposed to submit in 3 months
Definitely should not be procrastinating! Ah feck it...

Thumbwitch · 04/02/2012 14:17

TSP - it's ok, if you eat them raw it's unlikely to have hurt you because they go into the acidic stomach environment before the cyanide can be released :) The cooking effect releases the cyanide in the pip. Amygdalin is supposed to be a protective agent against cancer, btw, so your Dad was probably doing you a favour!
INcidentally, this is why you should never eat bitter almonds as well - they may contain cyanide.

Thumbwitch · 04/02/2012 14:15

xposted with all you incipient murderous types interested in apple pies - I don't know exactly, never tried it!

Perhaps if you had woodland mushrooms first, with some green potatoes, fried rhubarb leaves and then the applepip pie, it would make certain that it worked first time? Grin And confuse the toxicologists for about 10 seconds

Original poster
TheScarlettPimpernel · 04/02/2012 14:14

My Dad used to show us how to peel apple pips and eat them - they tasted of almonds, he said. OF COURSE THEY FUCKING DID, DAD! IT'S CYANIDE!!!!!

I have ONLY JUST REMEMBERED THAT!

OP posts:
Iggly · 04/02/2012 14:13
Thumbwitch · 04/02/2012 14:13

If MNHQ don't put this in classics, you can ask for it to be moved anyway, TSP - somewhere that doesn't die in 90 days. Other Subjects might be an option, or General Health (for the lulz Grin)

Ariel - just worked out what your amusing comment was about [slow] - sorry! was being OTT in teacher mode again Blush

SarahStratton · 04/02/2012 14:12

I read about someone who loved apple pips and saved a cupful up to eat as a treat.

It killed them.

just how many cooked pips would you need?

TunipTheVegemal · 04/02/2012 14:11

Tree walk was so simple. Just some plastic labels on the trees and a good leaflet.

JerichoStarQuilt · 04/02/2012 14:11

Apparently, although yew trees in churchyards were used and planted for making longbows, there are lots of churches where the trees far pre-date the buildings, suggesting they were sites of pagan ritual.

Btw, dreaming - sending you good vibes for the final push. I am procrastinating from mine too - and very pleasant it is! Grin

dreamingbohemian · 04/02/2012 14:10

I wonder that too Scarlett.

The only place we can keep our wireless router is under our bed, right under our heads. My MIL is convinced we're going to end up with brain cancer. And who knows really?

TunipTheVegemal · 04/02/2012 14:10

how many pies would it take?

Original poster
TheScarlettPimpernel · 04/02/2012 14:10

That's interesting Thumb

Tree walk sounds amazing...

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Thumbwitch · 04/02/2012 14:10

Scout - bloody aspartame and acesulphame K should be banned now, ditto that chlorinated sugar one, can't think of its name, newish thing, supposedly "natural"...

SarahStratton · 04/02/2012 14:09

This thread is like the weirdest stream of consciousness there has ever been

I hear that quite a lot. Blush

Thumbwitch · 04/02/2012 14:08

TSP - a fairly easy way to kill someone is to make apple pie but leave the pips in. The pips contain amygdalin, which, when oxidised, releases cyanide (which is why you should always remove them before cooking if you don't want to kill someone!) Eat enough cyanide pie and the victim will die. Some doctor knocked off his wife that way, iirc.

ScoutJemAndBoo · 04/02/2012 14:08

Agree Tsp I suspect artificial sweeteners will be banned one day.

TunipTheVegemal · 04/02/2012 14:08

I do like tree mythology.

We went to the maritime museum at Bucklers Hard in the summer and the best thing was a 'tree walk' in the woods with a most informative leaflet telling you everything you wanted to know about trees, like what they were used for and which ones had evil spirits and how many it took to make a warship. Bucklers Hard is a bit overpriced as a whole but the tree walk alone was worth the money.

ArielNonBio · 04/02/2012 14:08
ScoutJemAndBoo · 04/02/2012 14:07

Lol at Ariel talking to trees.

Silly Billy. Grin

Original poster
TheScarlettPimpernel · 04/02/2012 14:07

Ah, gotcha (re Samhain).

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Original poster
TheScarlettPimpernel · 04/02/2012 14:07

I still wonder what people will be saying as they shake their heads and look at our lifestyles, and wonder however we could not have known that (for instance) emanations from wireless computers were fiddling with our DNA, so that future generations will be born with odd openings between their toes, or something....

I am convinced that botox is going to prove disastrous in some way. There is no way you can go injection botulism without effects, even if years hence.

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