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

Yes, I hate to tell you, but the Soviets did manage to weaponize plague, and there are probably still some stocks floating around out there. Probably resistant to antibiotics too.

(Does my module on biological warfare win me some kind of Morbid Medal? )

That hand is amazing Thumb! At the Hunterian they have these two huge wooden plaques with the blood vessels and nervous system of a grown man dried and laid out on them. It really struck me how much they looked like the branches of a tree in winter, or even an autumn leaf when the flesh has crumbled away and left the veins behind.

Oh God Dreaming don't!!

The rabbit and the hand remind me of the War of the Worlds (Tom Cruise version) when Tim Robbins is yelling "Not my blood! Not my blood!" and the landscape is covered with veins.

Mind you, Michelangelo was dissecting bodies as well but I'm not entirely sure that he was supposed to be allowed to do that; it's a long time since I read about that but have a vague recollection that it had to be done in secret

That would be Fibonacci, wouldn't it? The structures being the same. I think so anyway.

I guess all of you watch History Cold Case (what Kurri's woman with triplets was on)?

I had a great time following the major nerves on a full plastinated body - when you see the size of the sciatic nerve, you can understand why it can cause so much bloody pain! (although obviously all nerves cause pain when triggered, so that's a bit of a facetious thing to say) Was very good for learning purposes. Dissection of brain tumour was interesting too. Oh God, the whole exhibition was just brilliant! Go and see it next time it's on.

Mind you, there's no pus... I don't think, anyway...

Sorry!!!

I'm guessing you don't want to hear about botulinum then...

Isn't Fibonacci that numerical sequence 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13 etc. etc.? I knew it recurred it nature - is it in the venous systems as well?

One of the next things I'm going to look at is the Quincunx by the way. I'll keep you posted

I too have read The da Vinci Code

PS - no, what is History Cold Case on? Have I missed telly goodness? Damn it!

Oh is it in the Last Supper too?! That Fibonacci getting everywhere

Ooh interesting thread. I remember reading of Fanny Burney's treatment for breast cancer actually, Thumbwitch.

Oh that's right MrsB - it was Fanny Burney's account that I read. I damn nearly passed out

dreaming, what about botulinum? Apart from it being the active ingredient in Botox of course.

I totally didn't get the Fibonacci comment - I knew about the sequence of course but wasn't sure what the comment related to!

Fractals are the things that blow me away - love them.

Well, I don't know if it is in the venous system, but I know it is all over nature and if the venous system looks like leaf skeletons and trees, I would guess that is why. I was hoping someone more knowledgeable would know?

I find underlying patterns like that really fascinating so I would like to know more.

Yes I hope a mathematician comes along soon. I remember reading about the Fibonacci sequence being in things like the pattern in the head of a sunflower. It fair blows the top of your head off, doesn't it?

And Divine Proportion. Remember that more da Vinci Code

Great subject.

Teeth - babies used to be given teething powder containing I think mercury. Symptoms of mercury poisoning include sore bleeding gums, so they'd be given more. They became toxic and died

Strangury is the pain of feeling like you constantly need to pee due to large bladder stone. Often then become septic and die, or get kidney failure or die of the surgery. I big problem then, no one sure why, something to do with the type of bread? Samuel Pepys had it.

No apoplexy?

Most people would have died from infection or trauma/accidents.

Hunterian museum great! Welcomeuseum also good. There's a good book I once read called death of kings where a pathologist analyses illnesses of all the kings/queens in a modern light. Fascinating.

i believe Samuel Peyps suffered from kidney stones and recorded his operation to have them removed, he was awake through out!

i also believe that some monks had begun to disecte (sp?) bodies at about the time of the dissolution and that in fact, the dissolution put the advance of medicine back many years.

fascinating thread!

Oh yes Weasle - one dead of apoplexy!

I wonder what the type of bread had to do with bladder stones? Are they the same as kidney stones, ie an accretion of uric acid crystals??

Dropsy. Does anyone know what this is/was? Edward III's wife Queen Phillippa was described as being "dropsical".

Enjoy ripping off David Baddiel sketches from yonks ago? Get a life, love.