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Saturday, 19 February 2011

Reasons for Mortality

During the week which ended on the 17th Feb. in 1719, the following diseases and conditions (among others) proved fatal to the inhabitants of London.


Aged  49
Chrisoms  1
Colick  2
Consumption  50
Convulsions  139
Dropsie  28
The King's Evil  2
Fever  51
The French Pox  2
Gout  1
Griping in the Guts  20
Headmouldshot  2
Jaundies  3
The Imposthume  2
Mortification  2
Rising in the Lights  5
The Small Pox  55
Sore Leg  1
Stoppage in the Stomach  5
Suddenly  4
Of their Teeth  43
Thrush  1
The Tissick  8
Twisting in the Guts  2
Tympany  1
Worms  1
Executed  4



                         

20 comments:

  1. Oh, this is just begging for a list poem (or maybe it's already a list poem)!

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  2. Geez, I wonder what some of those are!! they sound abysmal, to say the least.

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  3. That is an incredible list! "Of the Teeth" oh MY! Maybe that's rabies? Great pre-bedtime thoughts I'm conjuring! ;-)

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  4. Dying of "Tympany." Is that when a pair of ketlte drums fall on yer head? Or next-door whacking them too loudly? The Demon Drink doesn't rate a mention - in Hogarthian London??:-)

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  5. "KETTLE", Doc! Fingers suffering from the Demon Drink again, innit?

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  6. It strikes me, the dangerous bit was being aged 49...

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  7. More thinks - if only four died suddenly, did the rest linger for days in agony? A Tissick, a Tissick, they all fall down...

    (My fingers have a similar complaint to Doc's, hence the deletion. Though I hasten to add, no Demon Drink caused my crap typing.)

    Friko, have you reached the heights of boredom, resorting to a list of such magnitude in order to stir our Sunday brains into action?

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  8. Some are real sad. "Chrisom" (actually a cloth laid over a babe's face at baptism) became a euphemism for "infant death in the first month." "Headmouldshot" we now call "hydrocephalus" But hey . . . googling the items on Friko's wonderful list probably spoils the fun!

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  9. Jinksy, although I haven't yet died of mortification I might indeed die of boredom any time soon.

    Boredom doesn't figure on he list, perhaps they were too busy watching executions or being consumed by imposthume.

    Doc, please don't put me right about the latter if you know that it just a common or garden ailment, imposthume sounds lovely.

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  10. Think I've got a touch of "Griping in the Guts"

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  11. How close is "Sore Leg" to "Crushed Toe"?
    It appears that the odds are in my favor, anyway.

    And if y'don't know what it is, can you still die from it?

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  12. She dropsied dead?
    *snigger*

    A very interesting list. I'm off to google, even though it might spoil the fun ;-)

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  13. It did spoil the fun :-(
    Before I knew what it was, I liked the idea of dropsying dead. Now I don't so much.

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  14. There you are, Carolina, a big imagination is better than a little knowledge.

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  15. When I go, I want to rise in the lights. Sounds fabulous.

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  16. Oh, I do love this! Thank you, Friko.

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  17. Fascinating list! I wonder what 'rising in the lights' was? It's giving me a stoppage of the stomach just imagining...

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  18. Heck, I suffer from half of those and I'm still hangin on.

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  19. LOL. This is so funny. My husband is going to use it in one of his talks someday to doctors and/or nurses. Thank you!

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