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

Oh I read your link, cavemum - that's what gave me the low down on Sweating sickness!

I looked at the same article CaveMum. It was ver interesting, and even Wiki didn't have a conclusion.

Reshape, they'll be fine, I doubt they chewed the seeds up and it would take a large number of seeds to have hurt them, I'm sure. Still, probably best if you continue to take the pips off them when you can :)

This is quite interesting, about scarlet fever.

And not really that long ago either!

Scarlet fever is back, Scatter. There have been rising numbers of cases in the last few years, but it's not as dangerous (or as vicious) as it used to be because of antibiotics. I know a little girl who had it last year; but it was controlled with antibiotics fairly easily, thank goodness.

Going to bed now, honestly - night!

I had scarlet fever, not once but twice as a child. During the eighties when it was a very rare occurence indeed.

I learnt of The Sweat from Phillipa Gregory too. Apparently Henry's bro Arthur, and Mary Boleyn's husband (can't remember his name) were two people who died of it.

I had scarlet fever six months ago, my legs and arms are still scarred from the rash and I was ill for ages. It was the milder modern version called scarlatina and I wouldn't wish it on anyone.

My doctor told me the antibiotics were not just to clear the infection but to prevent me from getting rheumatic fever afterwrds. It weakens the heart and was a significant cause of death in pregnant/postnatal women in the past.

Pueperal fever/childbed fever mentioned above was caused by doctors going from operating/autopsy tables to deliver women in the same clothes and without washing their hands. Ignaz Semmelweis worked this out and sent himself mad (literally, he died in an asylum) trying to persuade people to wash their hands.

I learnt of it from Norah Lofts . The libraries used to be full of her stuff. Philippa Gregory's quite similar in a lot of ways.

I'm back from communing with yews.

Scarletina sounds rotten :(.

Has anyone heard the claim that apricot stones (inside the hard bit) prevent and even cure cancer? But apparently it is being hushed up by the Evil Pharmaceuticals because of money. That old chestnut . The amount of baloney peddled on the Internet is awful.

This is the most fascinating thread EVER on MN. Fact.

I've been reading a book called 'The disappearing spoon' which is about the elements in the periodic table (recommend it) and it's amazing what people have thought of ingesting over the years as 'cures'.
No doubt I'd be dead if I'd been born back then but scarily speaking to my consultant at the hospital, if I'd been diagnosed with RA 10yrs before I was, I'd probably be completely disabled by now. As they've only recognised in the past 15yrs that aggressive early treatment generally prevents full disability also the fab drugs I'm on have only been around 10yrs or so - thanks my lucky stars

DD2 had scarletina when she was little. She was ver ill :(

Fascinating thread.

Someone mentioned having stones surgically removed without anaesthetic. This happened to Pepys - he had a bladder stone removed, but survived, of course.

Has anyone else read The Emperor of All Maladies? It's a history of cancer, and the different treatments of it. Bits of thought are quite horrible, though also very interesting, particularly finding out how clueless doctors were about the disease until very recently.

Oh, and I just remembered George III was one of the people treated with arsenic (for his madness), which of course made him worse.

Please can I have permission to radiate smug that I have had 2 'Discussions of the Day' in about a week?!

I deeply regret not having had an Interesting Diseases. Although I was initially diagnosed with 'a weak chest', hilariously, before they finally ended up calling it 'asthma'

HackMum I've just seen The Madness of George III with David Haig...from a medical history perspective it was fascinating, if also absolutely horrific. It was also the single best stage performance I have ever seen - I recommend to everyone on the thread!

Smug off!

All the best people have asthma, me included.

I am Prone to Chest Infections. A few years ago we visited Rome and went to Keats' house on the Spanish Steps. Obviously his death mask is there and lots of stuff about his illness and TB etc. At the time I was wearing a floor length black wool coat and had almost waist length blonde hair, and a chest infection with a completely unstoppable cough, so visitors arrived to find a tall, pallid Englishwoman dressed like it was about 1815, leaning in the corner coughing her guts up I'm amazed I didn't get tipped as part of the display!

I'm trying to think of my most Interesting Malady.

I had a massive abscess on my leg once. Had to be lanced in Fiji. And I had pleurisy once, which sounds satisfyingly Elinor Brent-Dyer.

Other than that, nada.

Pleurisy is quite Interesting. That's practically 'Rising of the Lights'

Great thread

I used to work in archives and loved the Deaths registers [morbid] Loads of visitation from god and dentition which I assume was teething and the narrative causes; 'Having fallen from the coal cart whilst intoxicated and being trampled to death by horses' etc And the births - loads registered by the Master of the Workhouse.

Thanks for the great thread. Cold and wet in Scotland today so I have spent hours tucked in a fleece blanket on the couch reading through all the fascinating posts. Love the way it meanders through social history, medical history, chemistry, botany, pagan mythology, etc. I wish school could have been like this!

The Hunterian Museum in Glasgow is also worth a look:

www.gla.ac.uk/hunterian/collections/collectionsummary/medicineandanatomy/

Another great book on the topic is The Knife Man which is all about the advent of modern surgery: www.amazon.co.uk/Extraordinary-Hunter-Father-Modern-Surgery/dp/0593052099

A few people have mentioned Pepys' kidney stone - the procedure is a lithotomy and historically the stone would have been removed with entry going via an incision in the perineum. There's a lot about this procedure in The Knife Man and how it was generally a very dangerous procedure - I'm not surprised Pepys kept his stone in a commemorative box and celebrated the anniversary!