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How many of these are easily treatable today?
Childbed for one, by washing hands before shoving them up in laboring women’s vaginas.
Pressing to death by not torturing people
You can prevent a lot of Chrisomes and Teeth deaths (infants and toddlers and kindergartners) by routine vaccinations. Would prevent Jawfaln (tetanus) and Rising of the Lights (possibly whooping cough) as well.
Then of course there’s basic safety standards and antibiotics.
All the poxes, consumption, measles, etc are all standard vaccinations in any decent country.
Yep!
And every decent parent makes sure their kids get them.
It’s interesting how there’s a hint of science here, but so much non-science.
Like, trying to categorize things is a bit scientific. Trying to distinguish between similar but different things is a bit scientific. At the same time, so many of these causes of death are symptoms not causes. And, there are too many cases where they didn’t bother to try to find a cause, like the “Planet” cases or “Suddenly”. Also, almost all of the deaths are in children / infants, but in those cases they don’t try to figure out the cause of death, they just note the age.
Olde Modern Count Abortive, and Stillborn Abortion and Stillbirth 445 Affrighted Fear? Possibly a heart issue? 1 Ague Malaria, or a disease involving fever and shivering 43 Apoplex, and Meagrom Stroke and severe headache, migraine 17 Bit with a mad dog Rabies 1 Bleeding Blood loss 3 Bloody flux, scowring and flux Dysentery and cholera 348 Bruised, Issues, sores and ulcers Bruising, open sores, either as a symptom of something else (hemorrhagic fever) or because they got infected 28 Burnt, and Scalded Same 5 Burst, and Rupture Probably an externally visible rupture 9 Cancer and Wolf Cancer and Lupus 10 Canker Mouth sores, maybe from herpes? Probably not the underlying cause of death 1 Childbed Death following complications from childbirth 171 Chrisomes, and Infants Babies less than 1 month old and Infants 2268 Cold, and Cough Same (but probably a symptom of something worse) 55 Colick, Stone, and Strangury Gallstones, kidney stones, and other intestinal and urinary blockages 56 Consumption Tuberculosis 1797 Convulsion Seizure, possibly caused by epilepsy 241 Cut of the Stone Died during surgery to remove kidney / gallstones 5 Dead in the street, and starved Exposure, hypothermia, starvation 6 Dropsie, and Swelling Edema, fluid retention, possibly caused by heart failure 267 Drowned Same 34 Executed, and prest to death Executed is obvious, “prest to death” is accidental death while being tortured (via pressing) to force a confession 18 Falling sickness Epilepsy, perhaps “petit mal” seizures vs “grand mal” which went under Convulsion 7 Fever Same, interesting that it’s distinct from Ague 1108 Fistula Same, horrific, distinct from childbed – I guess the women lived a bit longer? 13 Flocks, and small Pox Smallpox and other diseases causing pustules 531 French pox Syphilis 12 Gangrene Same 5 Gout Gout, or inflammatory arthritis, not the underlying cause of death, but a clear symptom 4 Grief Modern medicine would be more specific but… 11 Jaundies Jaundice, liver disease 43 Jawfaln Fallen jaw, lockjaw, tetanus 8 Impostume Abcess, a symptom of an infection 74 Kil’d by several accidents Trauma, I assume 46 King’s Evil Scrofula or Mycobacterial cervical lymphadenitis 38 Lethargie Chronic fatigue, a symptom of something else 2 Livergrown Swollen liver, possibly cirrhosis from drinking 87 Lunatique Lunatic, mental illness – curious about the actual cause of death though 5 Made away themselves Suicide 15 Measles Same 80 Murthered Murdered 7 Over-laid and starved at nurse A smothered baby, either accidentally or on purpose, starved from lack of milk 7 Palsie Paralysis, Parkinson’s, similar things 25 Piles Hemorrhoids, not a cause of death, but a source of infections and an obvious symptom 1 Plague same 8 Planet Sudden death thought to be related to something astrological (planet alignment) 13 Pleurisie, and Spleen Pleurisy (chest infection), apparently it can sometimes be caused by damage to the spleen? 36 Purples and spotted Feaver Bruising and spotted fever (tick borne disease), distinct from bruising, listed earlier 38 Quinsie Quinsy, Peritonsillar abscess, can cause many other things 7 Rising of the Lights Fluid in the lungs, possibly caused by croup 98 Sciatica Same, possibly caused by spinal disc herniation 1 Scurvey, and Itch Ye Scurvy dogs! Ye been sailing with yer limes! 9 Suddenly um… 62 Surfet Surfeit, overeating, overdrinking, not fatal on its own, but perhaps blamed when it was the underlying reason 86 Swine Pox Possibly a euphemism for “French Pox”? 6 Teeth Probably children dying at an age when their permanent teeth were coming in. Similar to “Chrisomes” named for the cloth used when christening a child. Either that or serious tooth infections that led to complications. 470 Thrush, and Sore mouth Thrush (Candidiasis) could make it hard to eat or drink, or lead to other infections 40 Tympany Excess gas in the gastrointestinal tract making the belly like a drum, many potential underlying causes 13 Tissick A wasting disease, often associated with a cough 34 Vomiting Long term vomiting can cause dehydration, might also have been used for someone choking on vomit and dying from asphyxiation 1 Worms Ugh. 27 Cancer, and Wolf: 10
🤔
Probably speaking of lupus. The only reason that somehow makes any sense 🤔
What is King’s Evil and why did so many die from it?
This will make a useful crib sheet for reading the causes of death in the US next year under Health Tsar RFK Jnr .
Cause: Suddenly.
Heart attack (not listed as such)
aka heart attack.
If was the covid vaccine and you know it!
Someone vomitted to death. I’d probably rather the cancer and wolf combo.
Very good chance to be actually cancer. A lot of cancers lead to extreme vomiting if untreated in their terminal phase.
Or cholera,etc…yeah, these,too.
I think a lot of these could be grouped into a handful of now well known terminal illnesses.
But not the wolves.
Could well have been the opening phases of using canines to early detect illnesses. Just a few understandable methodology kinks in the early days.
I found a blog with a bunch of the definitions
https://www.neatorama.com/2022/03/09/Leading-Causes-of-Deaths-in-London-1632/
Thanks. I have so many questions about some of these. Cut of the stone, king’s evil, Planet, rising of the lights, teeth… I’m mostly curious what king’s evil is in this context. Gonna go look Edit: per the link it’s scrofula.
Teeth might be dental infections. Those can get nasty if untreated.
Thank you!
“My teeth are killing me” meant something pretty different back then.
“Teeth” actually meant “a child who’s still teething.” As with “chrisomes and infants,” so many little ones died that often they were categorized by age rather than a specific cause. Probably the only reason to specify “overlaid, and starved at nurse” would be to blame and punish the wet-nurse.
I didn’t know you could die of grief. Also what is ‘made away themselves’?
Probably suicide.
Oh, that is exactly what it is lol. I just went and looked it up.
Someone didn’t watch the Star Wars prequels
Correct.
Correct decision.
Dying of piles sounds awful. Like, it would have been nice to marathon Ye Olde Stranger Things or Squide Game without having your arse falling to pieces on your
deathbeddeathsofa.Leeches cured my gout. If only they knew.
Cancer, and Wolf.
“People called cancer the wolf, because it ‘ate up’ the person.” But this wasn’t just a linguistic quirk. The idea was actually translated into practice. “Some doctors would even apply raw meat to a cancerous ulcer, so that the wolf could feast on that for a while instead of ‘eating’ the patient.
I could see how people 400 years ago could think that makes sense.
“There are two wolves inside of you. I’m afraid it’s terminal.”
Classic comedy duo, well until cancer went through the divorce…
Made away themselves.
Ah British dancing around the point terms.
Just trying to avoid the YouTube censors
“Unalive” is the current dance. Euphemism isn’t new.
We’d still say “done away with themself”.
