Death certificate handwriting (pic)

[Lemond1fficult]

Hi everyone

I got the death certificate for my g-g-g-grandfather from 1857 and can't read the cause of death, as I don't think it's a familiar condition in today's parlance.

Would love a hand reading it, if anyone's able?

Close up of the offending word

Sorry too faded to read.

Was he a miner?

Feverous 4 months certified?

Think sheshoots has got it

Could try researching this site.

www.ancestry.co.uk/search/collections/webasm-9735/

I don’t think it’s feverous. Looks like an ‘h’ in there.

I can't read the actual cause of death, but the words after it in the Cause of Death column look like "4 months" and "certified". The "certified" has a line to his occupation of coal miner.

I am speculating here, but I am a doctor and there are some illnesses caused by occupation that we are asked about when completing a modern death certificate, for example asbestos exposure. I wonder whether the "certified" in the cause of death column means that his cause of death had been officially linked by the doctor to being a miner. NB this might all be wrong - it's just an idea

I had a look too and agree Feverousness or Frevrishness or similar. The capital letter looks like a S but definitely isn't when compared with the "Seventh".

Feverous is one of those catch-all terms which doesn't tell you very much. 35 though, no age.

But there's a dot which makes me think one of the letters is an i

Fervish?

It looks like perilous 4 months certified. But I have no idea what that means!

There's an 'h' in the middle of the word. I think it says 'fireshower 4 months certified' meaning he died as the result of injuries suffered in a mining explosion. Poor man.

Fever or feverish shouldn't really be given as a cause of death, because it's a symptom, not an actual cause. But that's not to say that Victorian doctors always followed the rules...

To me, the first bit looks like "Perish" but I can't think what would go after.

I agree with sheshootssheimplores

Could the first letter be a P? Possibly saying Perish...something? Maybe he had a cancer or disease that made him very weak and thin?

Yes but we're talking 1857. Medical knowledge isn't what it is now, and if there were no suspicious circumstances there wouldn't have been any investigation into the death.

Persistent was my first thought.

Looks a bit like “scirrhous” but that doesn’t seem to mean much on its own - I mean, I think it is a medical term of sorts. but it reads like an adjective.

Yes but we're talking 1857. Medical knowledge isn't what it is now

That's certainly true, but I'd still be a bit surprised if fever by itself was put down as a cause of death. And it doesn't really make sense with the 'certified' bit afterwards. 'Certified" would suggest that they did think they had some definite cause of death.

dunno- but out of curiosity I googled diseases in miners in 1860 and found this
oem.bmj.com/content/oemed/9/2/93.full.pdf
(HISTORY OF LUNG DISEASES OF COAL MINERS IN GREAT BRITAIN:*PARTII,1875-1920)
It is an article from the 1952 BMJ. Interesting.....

Have you looked up any coal mining accidents in the year/place he died?

Did anyone else in his family die at around the same time, OP? If it was an infectious illness, they might have died of the same thing and have a more legible certificate.

Could it be Scirrhous - a type of tumour?

www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/scirrhous

Four months certified means that the illness had been certified by a doctor and that it had been going on for four months. Can't figure out what the illness is though.

Could it be scirrhous?

@XXcstatic they basically put down she stopped breathing and her heart stopped on my mothers death certificate (I think the exact words were along the lines of cardiac arrest and respiratory failure). It would have been better if they put down unknown to be frank.