Ways of Dying in 1665

[TheScarlettPimpernel]

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

I saw 'Breaking the Mould', it was fascinating, yet incredibly sad. He died in the end, from what I remember.

agghh!!! this thread is buggering up my day, i need to go shopping and the snow clouds are gathering! you are all just too interesting!

I saw the programme about the rose bush penicillin thing. The poor guy died anyway, because they stopped giving him the medicine when he looked as though he was getting better. The penicillin developed and immunity to the rose bush. Or something.

Was that ok, Thumbwitch?

while im away, does anyone know why yew was always planted in churchyards?, was it for religious or scientific reasons?

Me too Jesus - I have Jobs and Tasks to do but can't...drag....myself....away....

We should have an MN History Geek club. With Ariel as Hon. Sec. I'll bake a series of vaguely historically related cakes and snacks, commencing with lamprey pie.

Ah yes Rusty - but I think information has in some ways gone backwards, don't you? I mean, how many people know that potato, tomato and rhubarb leaves are poisonous? How many people know that green potatoes are possibly quite dangerous? Whereas when I were a lass (in 't dim and distant past) this was quite common knowledge (suburban rather than city/country) because we grew our own, and Dad told us. We also had a yew tree out front so we were told not to eat the berries because they were poisonous - and we could identify most of the dangerous berries on plants (and therefore the plants too). And we knew not to eat mushrooms found in the woods or parks, just in case (we weren't fungi-savvy enough to tell the difference)
But perhaps we were unusual?

Religious. They warded off evil spirits, a pagan throwback.

Didn't know the cleft lonk but my DD was born with one and back in the day would probably have been seen as tainted by the devil. Oh and as she would not have been a good feeder the she mught have died. Or, had she survived, not educated cos it was then assumed to be associated with mental handicap due to speech priblems, and maybe institutionalised or made to be a social outcast. Thank God for the good old NHS!

Me, I would have died from appendicitis, severe tooth abcesses and given I have had a couple of bones reset in life I do wonder how disabled I would be if I only had 1700s medicine to cope.

I KNOW THAT ONE!!!!

Because Yew is very pliable and they used it to make longbows, which of course was the weaponry of choice for the ENglishman around the time of Agincourt!!

Apologies if this has already been said by anyone, but I suspect Tympany is intestinal. We still refer to some types of colic in horse as Tympany:

"Tympany colic is caused by gas. According to Equic-Therapy.net, this type of colic occurs when gas is created more quickly than it can be eliminated. This "trapped" gas distends the gut and causes extreme pain and cramping."

Also agree that "scowring" is probably diarrhoea. We refer to foals as "scouring" when they have the runs.

Read more: Equine Tympany Colic Treatment | eHow.com www.ehow.com/about_6596991_equine-tympany-colic-treatment.html#ixzz1lQ9qLoBZ

Love your point, Joan.
Me:
Chicken pox, mumps, measles - all potential child fatalities
Anaphylactic shock - probable death without steroids
Pneumonia 5 times - antibiotics
Dysentery twice - antibiotics
Dental abscess twice - antibiotics
Plus:
Facial shingles, which could have caused blindness/brain damage without antivirals
Psoriasis, which could have caused nerve damage without steroids
And a couple of nasty parasite infections that are not cured in the poor of developing countries, which cause long-term damage

And my mum would be blind if not for glaucoma drops & cataract surgery.

Thank you, modern medicine and the NHS!

ARiel you are talking COCK. See my comment on the longbow

I have a 20 year old copy of reportsge somewhere, must dig it out!

Up yours, Scarlett. Why would they reserve churchyards for such a purpose, when a simple copse would have done admirably? Eh? And don't start me on longbows......

Yep, religious. Some people suggested we shouldn't have yew tree in our front garden because it houses spirits or some such but I think they were full of it

TSP - congenital syphilis for cleft palate/lip. Or it could just give a large gap between front teeth.

I saw this at school. I remember thinking Griping in the Guts was probably appendicitis / peritonitis

One theory I have heard re yew in churchyards was that it was needed for bows, so it had to be planted somewhere (so the villages could send their requisite number of archers to fight the French when required). But as they didn't want the animals to eat it, and churchyards were typically fenced off, the churchyard was the ideal place.
However, it is also the case that yew already had a reputation as a sacred tree and churches were often put in places that were already sacred, so the yew may have been there in some cases before the church.

Because there were so many churches, and they were central focal points for the community, so if there was an invasion everyone knew where to go so they could knock up a quick batch of longbows in haste!!!

Scout this is making me want mine, too - i think I lent it to someone

But if the yews were sacred, would they then have hacked bits off them to make weaponry?

Oh a History Geek club would be lovely

Thumbwitch, apparently where we live in France, you can take your wild mushrooms to the chemist and they will tell you if they're poisonous or not. I'm still not sure I'd risk it!

The yew is because it is meant to have sophoric (sp?) Effects, therefore planting lots in graveyards will keep any wandering restless spirits under control.
Apparently you should never fall asleep under a yew bush/tree either.

Scarlett, I am the world mum expert in clefts and am happy to helpmyou out if you need. First recorded lip repair 300 years BC in china, palate repair unheard of until chloroform as it was agonising to do without anaesthetic.
Tutankhumun had a cleft apparently.

PMSL Ariel - you're fine! I just can't help myself.
Except it would have been the tetanus bacteria that would have become resistant to the penicillin, and it would have continued to produce tetanus toxin, which is what kills you. (Assuming it was tetanus, but it usually is something like that where rosebushes are concerned).

yew and rowan are both associated with witches, aren't they?

Yew trees Disclaimer - I have not read the whole thing.

Apparently there is a yew tree somewhere in Perthshire which is over 3000 years old. It's Europe's oldest living thing, or something.

No, Ariel is right, the yew is associated with pagan sites. Churches were built on pagan sites, as part of the displacement of the old religions. As yews are very long lived, most churches still have yews growing in the churchyards.