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 went to the doctor yesterday, it was great. No leeches, no cupping, no sexual and emotional abuse disguised as treating hysteria powered by either primitive electrical motors or steam. Just some little blue antibiotics which will almost certainly work, because they are BLUE! And everyone knows blue capsules are the most powerful medicine known to humanity

Oh Tunip, did the doctor not even examine or smell and taste your urine?

I hope you got a good explanation about which one of your humours is unbalanced and what you need to do to rebalance them, thats the very least I would expect. Or was it your uterus choking you again?

Any doctor worth his salt would have taken a little of your blood, please tell me he bled you a little, you'll be dead in a week with all that extra blood floating around your veins.

How disappointing

Hope you feel better soon and that the pills are from a reputable apothecary and not a quack with a cart.

No, he didn't do any of those things. I was a bit and then I realised he wasn't going to charge me! Not a single groat! Good old monasteries NHS!

(mind you he may be in league with the apothecary, she charged me £7.40 and AFAIK the pills don't even have any Egyptian mummy, rhino horn or even snake oil in!)

£7.40....you could buy a house for that, nay, a village with a whole load of serfs to empty your close stool and make you pottage. There must be something special in them for that price - pineapple perhaps or ambergris?

Definitely in league with the doctor.

there's a film with maggie gyllenhaal (sp?) coming out soon (or it may have been released already, not sure) about how they use to "treat" hysteria. Just sayin like'

NanBullen

I got this book out of the library a few weeks ago. www.amazon.co.uk/Technology-Orgasm-Hysteria-Vibrator-Satisfaction/dp/0801866464/ref=wl_it_dp_o_npd?ie=UTF8&coliid=I2FCMLM4X9N9IH&colid=3S21TZBHZZZL.

Eyeopening.

I know it's a zombie thread now, but what a great read this has been!

I know it's a zombie thread now, but what a great read this has been! smile

Thanks for the bump, this thread has occupied me for several hours and increased my kindle content by about 10 books. Love it!

This is the most fascinating and informative thread ever!

wow.

three hours I've spent on this- clicked on it to read while I had my last ciggie before bed- HA!!!

fascinating thread

What an amazing thread!

Amazing thread seconded!

Making spot as I'm fascinated but pressed for time! I did already find out some old relative has been tried at the old Bailey for stealing a petticoat!

Marking place, mainly for the book list on p32...