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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 - 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 )
Winde - 3 (Oh yeah. FARTED TO DEATH)

I realise I am a bit morbid

OP posts:

SarahStratton · 04/02/2012 12:30

Tympany was a swollen stomach, I think.

This is most agreeably gruesome. I may take to diagnosing from Tunips link

JerichoStarQuilt · 04/02/2012 12:30

This is amazing. All I can contribute is that much later (Victorian period and even early last century) women in areas of the country with soft water (eg. Cornwall) sometimes had their teeth taken out as a wedding present from their parents, because that way their husbands would never end up refusing to pay for expensive dental treatment and leaving their wives in pain.

I would think some people must have had their teeth out routinely. In the late sixteenth century, guides to the proper pronunciation of the semi-vowels notes that you hiss the letter 's', and I've heard this might be because so many people had teeth missing.

I think canker can be cancer, btw - I have seen references to 'hidden canker' and canker of the breast.

Original poster

TheScarlettPimpernel · 04/02/2012 12:29

Kate I remember thinking that too, when I was waiting for an extraction cos of a horrible abscess. The damn things are so near your brain, you know??!?! Let us not forget it was a mere ear infection that carried off dear Oscar Wilde...

OP posts:

KurriKurri · 04/02/2012 12:29

It was Henry 1 who supposedly died of a surfeit of lampreys, but probably fod poisoning, (or given he was a king, actual poisoning maybe)

My grandmother was very ill after the birth of her first child with 'childbed fever' - in hospital for months - this was in 1930, - also known as puerperal fever, I think its a kind of infection. I think that was probably a common cause of death for women pre anti biotics.

I remember seeing a history/forensic type programme a while ago, where they found the bones of a woman from medieval times IIRC, who had died in childbirth having triplets. One baby's bones were beside her, one baby skeleton,still in utero, and the other stuck in her pelvis

ArielNonBio · 04/02/2012 12:28

I'm finding it amazing how few of them on the latest link died of cancer (though perhaps he failed to attribute many deaths to that). Do you think this was because so many people didn't get to an age where cancer becomes more common? And there were no industrial pollutants, apart from lead oxide which the wealthy smeared over their faces (though that wasn't in fashion at that time I don't think).

BeyondTheLimitsOfAcceptability · 04/02/2012 12:28

teeth was deaths of toddlers after their teeth came through, coinciding with being weaned from the breast and a dip in immunity because of that. historically, this jump in deaths occurs a lot (just later with later weaning)

Original poster

TheScarlettPimpernel · 04/02/2012 12:28

No Choux it's great, I really wanted to talk to someone about it all but DH is rather inconsiderately sleeping off the night shift!

Yes that does sound like a stroke. I guess to a profoundly religious/superstitious society, something as outof-the-blue as a stroke must have seemed almost like a curse or act of God...

Look, I have found exactly what I am looking at online!

OP posts:

KateUnrulyBush · 04/02/2012 12:28

I've heard of a cankerous boil before now.

This thread is drifting into pusporn

In the run-up to having my wisdom teeth removed, it often crossed my mind that people must have died because of their teeth in the olden days .

choux · 04/02/2012 12:26

Sorry OP this probably doesn't help your research but I'm finding it fascinating:

Planet-struck: Any sudden severe affliction or paralysis.

I wonder if that is how a stroke would be diagnosed?

Original poster

TheScarlettPimpernel · 04/02/2012 12:24

Choux I think the planet thing was reference to the belief you could die from an infelicitous arrangement of the planets

By this stage they still believed that astronomy was effectively one of the sciences, with the magician John Dee having as much status in Lizzie's court as doctors and politicians...

OP posts:

ArielNonBio · 04/02/2012 12:24

Canker is often known as a "sore" isn't it? Some kind of open, festering, probably gangrenous ulcer?

ArielNonBio · 04/02/2012 12:23

I don't know. Sorry. I do know they used wooden pegs for teeth though, even royalty. Elizabeth I had a fine mouthful of wooden pegs by her 40s. I don't know if they whipped them all out as a matter of course though. Incidentally the rate of tooth decay amongst the Welsh was much less because they used to use hazel twigs to floss.

(Now ask me a question about fifteenth century skirmishes and I might know the answer. Proper historian my arse)

choux · 04/02/2012 12:22

There are more causes of death on this page

Interesting they had diagnosed cancer by 1632 although they hadn't distiguished it fully from 'wolf'.

And what are canker, planet and tympany?

Original poster

TheScarlettPimpernel · 04/02/2012 12:22

Shall I try and take a close up picture and post it on my profile???

I think I have mentioned most of them but it's absolutely fascinating seeing it all written down!

OP posts:

SarahStratton · 04/02/2012 12:21

Atrophy: Wasting away or diminishing in size

Diabetes?

Original poster

TheScarlettPimpernel · 04/02/2012 12:21

Ariel there is one dead of Canker, but I don't think that's the same as cancer - isn't a canker a huge open sore thing???

Incidentally 309 died of Feaver, this being the second highest cause of death after the PLague. That must be from anything causing a serious infection...

OP posts:

dreamingbohemian · 04/02/2012 12:20

Might surfeit include choking? I seem to remember there was a royal who choked to death on lampreys...

Original poster

TheScarlettPimpernel · 04/02/2012 12:19

Choux a proper historian will know better than me - ARiel might know - but yes I believe this was often a gift to young women in wealthier households. Not sure if it was as early as 1665 mind!

OP posts:

ArielNonBio · 04/02/2012 12:19

Don't make me sound stalky! I clicked on thread because it was intriguing. Didn't notice your name on it

I'm surprised about the selectivity of the list. Surely they would have recognised cancer by then, for example? I know it was a bit less common, but surely there would have been some deaths from Growthes, for example?

Original poster

TheScarlettPimpernel · 04/02/2012 12:18

ExP, it's a hobby. There is a huge art project going on in New York called the Sketchbook project where you get given a little sketchbook, fill it in to whatever theme you like, then sent it off. It gets archived in a New York arts library, and 1 double page spread from each is reproduced in a big art book thingy. My pal enrolled me in it when I sank into an irretrievable depression after finishing my PhD

OP posts:

choux · 04/02/2012 12:17

Teeth must be an abcess leading to general infection / sceptacaemia no?

Did they really switch to false teeth at 21? Again with no anaesthetic?!? Thankk god I'm alive now not then!

Original poster

TheScarlettPimpernel · 04/02/2012 12:17

Hello Ariel dear, I wondered if you'd be along soon!

See ref. to memento mori book.

OMG Expat a whole blog being intellectual and historickal about boils! BLISS!

OP posts:

ArielNonBio · 04/02/2012 12:17

Abscesses. Ouch

ExpatAgain · 04/02/2012 12:17

intriguing project, scarletP. is that your work or hobby? wonderful to have an excuse to dig around like this!

Original poster

TheScarlettPimpernel · 04/02/2012 12:15

Ooo Oooo Oooo - 121 dead merely of Teeth.

ow, ow, bloody ow.

No wonder there was a trend for whipping all the teeth out at 21 and getting some nice smart bone falsies.

OP posts:

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