Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works
on 02 Dec 00:13
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Not sure, but I’m guessing part of the reason to specify the difference between “infants” and “Chrisomes” (baptized babies) might be to say where they’d be buried/where their souls would go.
rational_lib@lemmy.world
on 02 Dec 05:54
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“And in other news, the death figures were released today. Once again, the leading cause of death is: being a baby. Over the last year, 2,268 infants died naturally of babyness.”
“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.
webghost0101@sopuli.xyz
on 01 Dec 22:33
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Planet ?!?
HoneyMustardGas@lemmy.world
on 01 Dec 22:42
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Scary:
“Dying of planet” was a term used in the 17th and 18th centuries to describe a sudden and severe illness or paralysis that was attributed to astrology and the influence of malevolent planets. People who died from “planet” exhibited symptoms similar to strokes, heart attacks, and aneurysms.
At the time, people who picked up bodies for burial often knew little about the cause of death. Other causes of death listed in The Diseases, and Casualties this year being 1632 included “affrighted” and “made away themselves”.
-Via Overview.
metaStatic@kbin.earth
on 01 Dec 22:37
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Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works
on 02 Dec 00:06
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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.
phdepressed@sh.itjust.works
on 02 Dec 01:05
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All the poxes, consumption, measles, etc are all standard vaccinations in any decent country.
Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works
on 02 Dec 01:13
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Yep!
And every decent parent makes sure their kids get them.
PhobosAnomaly@feddit.uk
on 01 Dec 22:55
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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 deathbed deathsofa.
Sweetpeaches69@lemmy.world
on 01 Dec 22:59
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How did someone die of sciatica?
ChonkyOwlbear@lemmy.world
on 01 Dec 23:09
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Just snapped right in half.
Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works
on 02 Dec 00:08
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Could be pain in the sciatic area that was actually caused by something else, like septic kidneys or an internal tumor
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world
on 02 Dec 07:59
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I can speculate: Tumor or abscess pushing on the sciatic nerve? Horrible, unending back pain so they killed themselves? The cure being worse than the disease? I only know a bit about 17th century medicine, just that they lack a lot of medical technology and knowledge we take for granted. I mean they figured out hand washing in the 19th century.
ArbitraryValue@sh.itjust.works
on 01 Dec 23:01
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Only 7 murders? The population of London was apparently about 400,000 back then so that’s less than half the murder rate of present-day New York City (which is considered a relatively safe city). I don’t think that can be right…
1632 London: 7 / 400,000 = 17.5 murders per million people
2023 New York: 312 / 8,258,000 = 37.8 murders per million people
Plagiatus@lemmy.world
on 02 Dec 00:06
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a relatively safe city […] 37.8 murders per million
Ignoring that in 1632 it might’ve been easier for murder to go undetected, here are the numbers of present day London. It’s about 13.1 mpm, even lower than in 1632, about a third of present day New York.
America is not really a shining example when it comes to those things…
ArbitraryValue@sh.itjust.works
on 02 Dec 00:30
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New York’s murder rate (and the overall murder rate in the USA) is shaped by a history of race relations which is quite different from London’s. A white person in New York is much less likely (and conversely a black or Hispanic person is much more likely) to be murdered than the overall murder rate for the city might lead someone to think.
GJdan@programming.dev
on 02 Dec 06:53
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Black and Hispanic people make up 52% of the city’s population but 88% of the murder victims. The murder rate of the white and Asian population works out to approximately 8.4 per million, so the average European tourist is not in much danger here.
Yeah, exactly. You seem to arbitrarily place higher value on white people’s lives…
ArbitraryValue@sh.itjust.works
on 02 Dec 18:52
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I’m not making a value judgement. I’m explaining why New York City’s murder rate is so much higher than London’s. It’s because NYC has a population of white and Asian people who are as safe as Europeans and another, de facto segregated population of black and Hispanic people who are much less safe.
I presume that a big part of the reason why things are the way they are is that society places a higher value on white people’s lives, but I’m not doing that here. Explaining isn’t the same as justifying.
Why bring it up at all then? The topic was New York being unsafe, you come rushing it explaining it’s because of the brown people.
Welp. Even though at this point I’m leaning towards “very clumsy with words” rather than “disgusting racist”, I don’t really have much interest in talking to you further.
ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world
on 02 Dec 17:48
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It’s a lot harder to murder somebody when you actually have to stab them or beat their head in with something.
RizzRustbolt@lemmy.world
on 02 Dec 05:31
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present-day New York City (which is considered a relatively safe city).
Relative to USA. It would easily be one of the most violent cities in Europe.
Danquebec@sh.itjust.works
on 03 Dec 02:48
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I’m especially doubfounded as I thought that before there was an important police force and a mature legal system, murders were far more frequent than after.
At the same time, it’s possible I’m imagining 1632 London to be more primitive than it really was.
happybadger@hexbear.net
on 01 Dec 23:07
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Bear in mind that there was neither modern medicine, diagnostics or autopsies in the 1600s, so diseases we would treat separately would be lumped together.
Abortive and stillborn – mostly natural miscarriages and stillbirths, but there was always someone who knew how to induce a miscarriage with either herbs or physical interventions.
Affrighted – it’s not really possible to die of fright, but if you died for no reason, or had a stroke or heart attack which left your face twisted in an expression of fear or pain…
Ague – the alternating fevers and chills associated with malaria
Apoplex and megrom – strokes and other catastrophic brain damage, such as burst aneurysms (megrom is migraine, migraines don’t kill you but it’s a sudden, excruciating pain in the head, some of which are a symptom of
something fatal).
Bit with a mad dog – rabies, or, just a dog bite in a bad place such as by an artery or one that got infected.
Bleeding – any number of causes, just like today.
Bloody flux, scowring and flux – various ways of shitting yourself inside out.
Bruised, issues, sores and ulcers – self-explanatory. Sores and ulcers that got infected would almost certainly kill you. Severe bruises could be
indicative of some sort of haemorrhagic fever.
Burnt and scalded – homes were heated by and food was cooked on open fires. Only five deaths from burns and scalds in a year is a miracle.
Burst and rupture – could be appendix, but unlikely as that would almost certainly require autopsy to diagnose. More likely hernia.
Cancer, and wolf – discussed in other comments but the same thing, essentially. Wolf was particularly aggressive tumours that ate someone alive from the inside.
Canker – ulceration of mouth and lips from herpes. Secondary infection was
what probably finished you off, but a mouth full of sores will make
it difficult to eat.
Childbed – women would make their will shortly before they were due to give birth, because it could go so wrong in so many, many ways.
Chrisomes and infants – Chrisomes were babies who died within the first month of life, around the time they were baptised, the chrisome is the cloth used during the baptism.
Cold and cough – wrap up warm or you’ll catch your death.
Colick, stone and strangury – all sorts of pains in your intestines, hernias, colic, bowel obstructions, appendicitis, difficulty urinating.
Consumption – probably tuberculosis, but possibly other lung diseases such as lung cancer etc.
Convulsions – epilepsy or other fits, possibly febrile convulsions in infants.
Cut of the stone – death during or after surgical removal of kidney or bladder stones. This is the 17th century. No anaesthesia, no aseptic surgery, imagine
how desperate you would have to be from pain to let some butcher in his bloody apron anywhere near you.
Dead in the street and starved – homeless and froze to death.
Dropsie and swelling – symptom of heart disease and early stage failure.
Drowned – fairly self- explanatory. Could be accidental or deliberate.
Executed and prest to death – executed is obvious. Pressing was a form of torture used if a prisoner refused to enter a plea of guilty or not guilty, they would have heavier and heavier weights placed on their chests until they either gave in and entered a plea or died under the weight.
Falling sickness – epilepsy
Fever – could be anything involving a high temperature
Fistula – almost certainly obstetric fistula. Women who labour long and hard can incur all sorts of physical injury, a fistula is caused when the pressure of a baby that can’t get through causes necrosis as the blood supply to the genitals is cut off. In extreme cases, the bowel, vagina and bladder become one big hole through which urine and faeces pass uncontrollably. Fistula has other causes, if you want to horrify yourself you can read the wikipedia page.
Flocks and smallpox – flocks is a euphemism for syphilis, smallpox is smallpox, hurrah for vaccines, we don’t have this one any more.
French pox – syphilis
Gangrene – infected wounds
Gout – err, gout.
Grief – how many times has one of a couple died and the other one followed them shortly after?
Jaundice – liver disease.
Jawsaln – lockjaw, also known as tetanus. Get your shots, especially if you fertilise your garden using horse manure.
Impostume – abscesses in various places. These can cause septicaemia
Kil’d by several accidents – this just means “several people died by various
accidents” it doesn’t mean some poor unfortunate soul fell off the roof and was hit by a cart and then fell in the Thames.
King’s evil – scrofula, a tuberculosis infection of the bones and glands in the neck. It was believed the king or queen could c
Evilsandwichman@hexbear.net
on 02 Dec 05:02
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Hey thanks for this, it was a very interesting read
DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social
on 03 Dec 04:26
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Until they got to the part about hearing the worms moving around inside you…
The_Che_Banana@beehaw.org
on 01 Dec 23:27
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Rising of the lights?
…found it
Rising of the lights was an illness or obstructive condition of the larynx, trachea or lungs, possibly croup. It was a common entry on bills of mortality in the 17th century.[1][2] Lights in this case referred to the lungs.[3]
spankmonkey@lemmy.world
on 02 Dec 05:57
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Thank you!
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world
on 02 Dec 07:44
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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.
Natanox@discuss.tchncs.de
on 01 Dec 23:44
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“My teeth are killing me” meant something pretty different back then.
Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works
on 02 Dec 00:00
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“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.
MyTurtleSwimsUpsideDown@fedia.io
on 02 Dec 01:02
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I would choose wolves over cancer
I suspect it means ear infections, but I choose to believe there was a big kettledrum accident that year
I think ‘several’ just means that the people counted weren’t all killed in the same accident. No WorkSafe in those days so those accidents were probably shit like roofers falling off chapels and apprentice tanners mishandling chemicals.
state_electrician@discuss.tchncs.de
on 02 Dec 11:38
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So many dead children. I count a full one third of all deaths being babies and toddlers.
flamingo_pinyata@sopuli.xyz
on 02 Dec 12:11
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It’s the reason why so many misleading statistics claim a much shorter lifespan in the past. If you survived childhood, and there wasn’t a plague around, or a war, you had good chances of reaching 60.
MarxMadness@lemmygrad.ml
on 02 Dec 12:35
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If you survived childhood, and there wasn’t a plague around, or a war
Lot of “ifs”
ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world
on 02 Dec 17:36
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Life expectancy from birth is easily the most misleading statistic in the history of the social sciences because it is a measure of central tendency (aka an average, specifically, a median) of a property (age at death) that not only has no central tendency but actually has the opposite of a central tendency, with values concentrated at the low end (infant and child mortality) and the high end (old age deaths). In almost all societies ever measured, the life expectancy from birth age is usually the age at which a person is least likely to die.
To add to its misleading nature: demographers usually use the value to express the life chances of the just-born cohort (up to age 5). Since they obviously can’t wait 70 or 80 years until half of that cohort has actually died, they instead use curve-fitting to estimate life expectancy based on infant and child mortality actually experienced by the cohort. People often say that life expectancy from birth is misleading because it’s heavily impacted by infant and child mortality, but this is not quite correct - it’s actually entirely determined by infant and child mortality.
Phoenicianpirate@lemm.ee
on 02 Dec 12:25
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I saw this list on hidden killers of the Tudor home (even though this list is post-Tudor era). The specifically spoke about the ‘teeth’ part.
Basically what that mean was that a variety of tooth decay and oral issues pertaining to the teeth. This was an era that first saw a large consumption of sugar (which as you know LOVES to fuck with teeth) by wealthier people and coupled with a nonexistent oral hygiene practice and dentistry. Basically people’s teeth would decay and cause gum disease or simply a shitload of pain that even the painful teeth pulling couldn’t fully fix.
One thing that you must remember is that prior to widespread sugar availability most people’s teeth were remarkably fine throughout life as people’s diets didn’t contain enough crap that will mess your teeth up. Of course this isn’t to say that it was perfect. Braces would have been a good thing to have for many people and a simple toothbrush with half decent toothpaste would have been a very welcomed thing.
prettybunnys@sh.itjust.works
on 02 Dec 12:33
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Apparently teeth means children who haven’t gone through teething, according to contemporary resources
Phoenicianpirate@lemm.ee
on 02 Dec 12:37
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So the documentary lied to me?
prettybunnys@sh.itjust.works
on 02 Dec 12:47
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I’d take a more pragmatic approach in that what you’re saying is totally valid and may not contradict what I am saying either.
captainlezbian@lemmy.world
on 02 Dec 17:35
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Yeah, these days we’d say “childhood ailments”. Or “death by antivaxx” as a lot of those ailments have a childhood shot associated with them these days.
Thanks. That’s helpful. And because I had to know:
Among unfathomable “Diseases and Casualties,” Planet (or plannet) was “likely a shorthand for “planet-struck [because] Many medical practitioners believed the planets influenced health and sanity.” The label applied to any sudden illness or death, such as a heart attack or aneurysm, according to “15 Historic Diseases that Competed with Bubonic Plague.”
humble_pete_digger@lemm.ee
on 03 Dec 00:36
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Most that would die in the street would have an underlying condition, like ague or bleeding or even old age, since most people that starve would try to do something about it.
If you’re sick you might not be able to. If you find a job or charity successfully you’ve averted the death. If you tried to steal and fail you’ll get on the executed list, or if you got wounded but got away, you’ll be on the bleeding list, or if you succeed then you dont die on the street.
I imagine those six would have the “died of unknown causes” phrase attached to them in modern times.
I didn’t even think of that. Thank you for the info!
FlyingSquid@lemmy.world
on 02 Dec 15:10
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You guys are all laughing about ‘planet,’ but I’ll have you know my uncle died of a cerebral hemorrhage when Neptune hit him on the back of the head. And we all thought it was just a glancing blow, but two days later, he dropped dead right in the middle of the supermarket.
You won’t laugh so hard when it happens to someone you care about.
ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world
on 02 Dec 17:29
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Imagine being proudly offed by Pluto and then they make it not a planet any more.
captainlezbian@lemmy.world
on 02 Dec 17:30
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I never thought to combine deaths by cancer and by wolves to save space or because they’re similar enough. I can’t comprehend why they thought it was a good idea either.
ryathal@sh.itjust.works
on 02 Dec 18:33
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It wasn’t cancer cancer, it was a big crab that lived in the Thames that hung out with a wolf.
That happened with our dogs. One of our dogs was crazy about the other, like she was his everything. She passed away, and he died in the middle of the night a few days later. They were both elderly, but he had seemed fine when we went to bed, other than being sad about losing his best friend.
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.
melissa_limoncella@lemm.ee
on 06 Dec 05:04
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threaded - newest
::: spoiler beware! <img alt="" src="https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fimage.shutterstock.com%2Fz%2Fstock-vector-tooth-killer-mascot-vector-cartoon-illustration-1351507094.jpg&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=3fc35653edc8ede534930f537e21a047655b6fefdf5081144d11eec3b88d3be5&ipo=images">
tf is King’s Evil?
Mycobacterial cervical lymphadenitis
I’m gonna call it the other thing
Chrisomes : died while under a month old.
Not sure, but I’m guessing part of the reason to specify the difference between “infants” and “Chrisomes” (baptized babies) might be to say where they’d be buried/where their souls would go.
“And in other news, the death figures were released today. Once again, the leading cause of death is: being a baby. Over the last year, 2,268 infants died naturally of babyness.”
Spawnkill
Cancer, and Wolf.
Classic comedy duo, well until cancer went through the divorce…
Source
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.”
Oof, Wolf’s a rough way to go
youtu.be/QlbjBSN49H8
TW: leads to more questions than answers
Planet ?!?
Scary:
“Dying of planet” was a term used in the 17th and 18th centuries to describe a sudden and severe illness or paralysis that was attributed to astrology and the influence of malevolent planets. People who died from “planet” exhibited symptoms similar to strokes, heart attacks, and aneurysms. At the time, people who picked up bodies for burial often knew little about the cause of death. Other causes of death listed in The Diseases, and Casualties this year being 1632 included “affrighted” and “made away themselves”. -Via Overview.
Leeches cured my gout. If only they knew.
oh, cool - RFKs suggested DSM just dropped!
Cause: Suddenly.
Heart attack (not listed as such)
aka heart attack.
If was the covid vaccine and you know it!
Planet.
When the Earth itself is out to get you.
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.
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.
Died of teeth
Not really sure what I can add to that
Toddlers and Kindergartners basically, still teething. Of whatever cause, too many and too difficult to tell.
Consumption I think is not in the sense of eating, but in the sense of the body eating itself ie wasting away.
I thought consumption was tuberculosis?
You would be correct.
Tuberculosis
consumption is tuberculosis
Red Dead 2 taught me something at least
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.
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.Made away themselves.
Ah British dancing around the point terms.
We’d still say “done away with themself”.
“Unalive” is the current dance. Euphemism isn’t new.
Just trying to avoid the YouTube censors
King’s Evil sounds like they were executed to me, but I have no clue what it could actually mean.
Scrofula.
Anyone checking for a actual executions should look about 3/4 down the first column.
Somehow glanced over that, thanks for telling me!
How did someone die of sciatica?
Just snapped right in half.
Could be pain in the sciatic area that was actually caused by something else, like septic kidneys or an internal tumor
I can speculate: Tumor or abscess pushing on the sciatic nerve? Horrible, unending back pain so they killed themselves? The cure being worse than the disease? I only know a bit about 17th century medicine, just that they lack a lot of medical technology and knowledge we take for granted. I mean they figured out hand washing in the 19th century.
Only 7 murders? The population of London was apparently about 400,000 back then so that’s less than half the murder rate of present-day New York City (which is considered a relatively safe city). I don’t think that can be right…
Ignoring that in 1632 it might’ve been easier for murder to go undetected, here are the numbers of present day London. It’s about 13.1 mpm, even lower than in 1632, about a third of present day New York.
www.statista.com/statistics/…/murders-in-london/
America is not really a shining example when it comes to those things…
New York’s murder rate (and the overall murder rate in the USA) is shaped by a history of race relations which is quite different from London’s. A white person in New York is much less likely (and conversely a black or Hispanic person is much more likely) to be murdered than the overall murder rate for the city might lead someone to think.
Oh, well, carry on then.
Username checks out.
<img alt="" src="https://sh.itjust.works/pictrs/image/a76ecadd-eaf6-46eb-9a06-0cc66daef54f.jpeg">
Source
<img alt="" src="https://sh.itjust.works/pictrs/image/05987eb3-9a00-4687-831e-17a1873bcfb8.jpeg">
Source
Black and Hispanic people make up 52% of the city’s population but 88% of the murder victims. The murder rate of the white and Asian population works out to approximately 8.4 per million, so the average European tourist is not in much danger here.
Yeah, exactly. You seem to arbitrarily place higher value on white people’s lives…
I’m not making a value judgement. I’m explaining why New York City’s murder rate is so much higher than London’s. It’s because NYC has a population of white and Asian people who are as safe as Europeans and another, de facto segregated population of black and Hispanic people who are much less safe.
I presume that a big part of the reason why things are the way they are is that society places a higher value on white people’s lives, but I’m not doing that here. Explaining isn’t the same as justifying.
Why bring it up at all then? The topic was New York being unsafe, you come rushing it explaining it’s because of the brown people.
Welp. Even though at this point I’m leaning towards “very clumsy with words” rather than “disgusting racist”, I don’t really have much interest in talking to you further.
It’s a lot harder to murder somebody when you actually have to stab them or beat their head in with something.
It’s for the greater good!
Relative to USA. It would easily be one of the most violent cities in Europe.
I’m especially doubfounded as I thought that before there was an important police force and a mature legal system, murders were far more frequent than after.
At the same time, it’s possible I’m imagining 1632 London to be more primitive than it really was.
Someone translated the antiquated diagnoses: reddit.com/…/causes_of_death_in_london_in_1632/
spoiler
Bear in mind that there was neither modern medicine, diagnostics or autopsies in the 1600s, so diseases we would treat separately would be lumped together. Abortive and stillborn – mostly natural miscarriages and stillbirths, but there was always someone who knew how to induce a miscarriage with either herbs or physical interventions. Affrighted – it’s not really possible to die of fright, but if you died for no reason, or had a stroke or heart attack which left your face twisted in an expression of fear or pain… Ague – the alternating fevers and chills associated with malaria Apoplex and megrom – strokes and other catastrophic brain damage, such as burst aneurysms (megrom is migraine, migraines don’t kill you but it’s a sudden, excruciating pain in the head, some of which are a symptom of something fatal). Bit with a mad dog – rabies, or, just a dog bite in a bad place such as by an artery or one that got infected. Bleeding – any number of causes, just like today. Bloody flux, scowring and flux – various ways of shitting yourself inside out. Bruised, issues, sores and ulcers – self-explanatory. Sores and ulcers that got infected would almost certainly kill you. Severe bruises could be indicative of some sort of haemorrhagic fever. Burnt and scalded – homes were heated by and food was cooked on open fires. Only five deaths from burns and scalds in a year is a miracle. Burst and rupture – could be appendix, but unlikely as that would almost certainly require autopsy to diagnose. More likely hernia. Cancer, and wolf – discussed in other comments but the same thing, essentially. Wolf was particularly aggressive tumours that ate someone alive from the inside. Canker – ulceration of mouth and lips from herpes. Secondary infection was what probably finished you off, but a mouth full of sores will make it difficult to eat. Childbed – women would make their will shortly before they were due to give birth, because it could go so wrong in so many, many ways. Chrisomes and infants – Chrisomes were babies who died within the first month of life, around the time they were baptised, the chrisome is the cloth used during the baptism. Cold and cough – wrap up warm or you’ll catch your death. Colick, stone and strangury – all sorts of pains in your intestines, hernias, colic, bowel obstructions, appendicitis, difficulty urinating. Consumption – probably tuberculosis, but possibly other lung diseases such as lung cancer etc. Convulsions – epilepsy or other fits, possibly febrile convulsions in infants. Cut of the stone – death during or after surgical removal of kidney or bladder stones. This is the 17th century. No anaesthesia, no aseptic surgery, imagine how desperate you would have to be from pain to let some butcher in his bloody apron anywhere near you. Dead in the street and starved – homeless and froze to death. Dropsie and swelling – symptom of heart disease and early stage failure. Drowned – fairly self- explanatory. Could be accidental or deliberate. Executed and prest to death – executed is obvious. Pressing was a form of torture used if a prisoner refused to enter a plea of guilty or not guilty, they would have heavier and heavier weights placed on their chests until they either gave in and entered a plea or died under the weight. Falling sickness – epilepsy Fever – could be anything involving a high temperature Fistula – almost certainly obstetric fistula. Women who labour long and hard can incur all sorts of physical injury, a fistula is caused when the pressure of a baby that can’t get through causes necrosis as the blood supply to the genitals is cut off. In extreme cases, the bowel, vagina and bladder become one big hole through which urine and faeces pass uncontrollably. Fistula has other causes, if you want to horrify yourself you can read the wikipedia page. Flocks and smallpox – flocks is a euphemism for syphilis, smallpox is smallpox, hurrah for vaccines, we don’t have this one any more. French pox – syphilis Gangrene – infected wounds Gout – err, gout. Grief – how many times has one of a couple died and the other one followed them shortly after? Jaundice – liver disease. Jawsaln – lockjaw, also known as tetanus. Get your shots, especially if you fertilise your garden using horse manure. Impostume – abscesses in various places. These can cause septicaemia Kil’d by several accidents – this just means “several people died by various accidents” it doesn’t mean some poor unfortunate soul fell off the roof and was hit by a cart and then fell in the Thames. King’s evil – scrofula, a tuberculosis infection of the bones and glands in the neck. It was believed the king or queen could c
Hey thanks for this, it was a very interesting read
Until they got to the part about hearing the worms moving around inside you…
Rising of the lights?
…found it
I found a blog with a bunch of the definitions
neatorama.com/…/Leading-Causes-of-Deaths-in-Londo…
Thank you!
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.
“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.
It meant tumor
Tag yourself. I’m “rising of the lights”
Nice! I’m afflicted by the astrological influence of a planet
Planet must mean “fell from s high place”.
“Cancer, and Wolf” is that a gangster duo or something?
Over-laid sounds like a good way to go.
Death by snu-snu!
I know right? Especially when it’s so good you starve to death. And she’s a nurse too
Better than King’s Evil.
Don’t know why they felt the need to have it and executions separately
That one guy that died of Sciatica 😣
Am old, can sympathise.
Hear hear.
WHAT DID YOU SAY?
Imagine the guy unlucky enough to have died from cancer AND wolf.
So aggravating to not be able to sort by columns
“Cancer, and wolf”
When the universe is out to get you, but you survive the first accident
Rasputin syndrome
Like this guy. The only thing that could kill him was himself apparently.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Sullivan
Ye olde’ Final Destination.
Is 2 several? Or 3? At which point do you come under the several category
This is just the extended discography of a gothic folk metal band?
‘Planet’ goes hard.
Not sure what that’s supposed to mean. Maybe some Final Destination shit where they die due to a series of random chance events?
They got beaten up by an angry mob and there were mysteriously zero witnesses
Maybe something like this but fatal?
They had a lot of HP so it took several accidents in a row
I think ‘several’ just means that the people counted weren’t all killed in the same accident. No WorkSafe in those days so those accidents were probably shit like roofers falling off chapels and apprentice tanners mishandling chemicals.
So many dead children. I count a full one third of all deaths being babies and toddlers.
It’s the reason why so many misleading statistics claim a much shorter lifespan in the past. If you survived childhood, and there wasn’t a plague around, or a war, you had good chances of reaching 60.
Lot of “ifs”
Life expectancy from birth is easily the most misleading statistic in the history of the social sciences because it is a measure of central tendency (aka an average, specifically, a median) of a property (age at death) that not only has no central tendency but actually has the opposite of a central tendency, with values concentrated at the low end (infant and child mortality) and the high end (old age deaths). In almost all societies ever measured, the life expectancy from birth age is usually the age at which a person is least likely to die.
To add to its misleading nature: demographers usually use the value to express the life chances of the just-born cohort (up to age 5). Since they obviously can’t wait 70 or 80 years until half of that cohort has actually died, they instead use curve-fitting to estimate life expectancy based on infant and child mortality actually experienced by the cohort. People often say that life expectancy from birth is misleading because it’s heavily impacted by infant and child mortality, but this is not quite correct - it’s actually entirely determined by infant and child mortality.
the King’s Evil?
Well the king is evil.
I thought that was implied.
Well I didn't vote for 'im
.
.
Scrofula
I saw this list on hidden killers of the Tudor home (even though this list is post-Tudor era). The specifically spoke about the ‘teeth’ part.
Basically what that mean was that a variety of tooth decay and oral issues pertaining to the teeth. This was an era that first saw a large consumption of sugar (which as you know LOVES to fuck with teeth) by wealthier people and coupled with a nonexistent oral hygiene practice and dentistry. Basically people’s teeth would decay and cause gum disease or simply a shitload of pain that even the painful teeth pulling couldn’t fully fix.
One thing that you must remember is that prior to widespread sugar availability most people’s teeth were remarkably fine throughout life as people’s diets didn’t contain enough crap that will mess your teeth up. Of course this isn’t to say that it was perfect. Braces would have been a good thing to have for many people and a simple toothbrush with half decent toothpaste would have been a very welcomed thing.
Apparently teeth means children who haven’t gone through teething, according to contemporary resources
So the documentary lied to me?
I’d take a more pragmatic approach in that what you’re saying is totally valid and may not contradict what I am saying either.
Yeah, these days we’d say “childhood ailments”. Or “death by antivaxx” as a lot of those ailments have a childhood shot associated with them these days.
RFK jr will do his damndest to ensure bad teeth becoming a leading cause of death. Right behind measles, flu, polio and other communicable diseases.
Hey, don’t blame sugar! It doesn’t do anything itself. It’s the bacteria eating the sugar and shitting on your teeth that damage them.
Yeah, it’s bacteria shit on your teeth. Brush your teeth, kids.
Or don’t eat sugar
People don’t understand that dental disease can lead to heart attacks/life threatening conditions
I learned that years ago. It was quite the eye opener.
You can read about the modern meanings of the words here:
mylittlebird.com/…/public-health-stats-on-disease…
Thanks. That’s helpful. And because I had to know:
Among unfathomable “Diseases and Casualties,” Planet (or plannet) was “likely a shorthand for “planet-struck [because] Many medical practitioners believed the planets influenced health and sanity.” The label applied to any sudden illness or death, such as a heart attack or aneurysm, according to “15 Historic Diseases that Competed with Bubonic Plague.”
What’s “consumption”?
Tuberculosis, a bacterial infection of the lungs.
Ha. Interesting. I thought it was excessive alcohol consumption at first
More that it consumes you, than you doing any consuming.
Kings evil?
www.britannica.com/science/kings-evil
Out in the streets they call it merther
When rhythm spacing out your head
Spelling “Lunatic” as “Lunatique” now. Shout out to the poor folks that just died in the street and starved. Surprised it’s only 6.
Most that would die in the street would have an underlying condition, like ague or bleeding or even old age, since most people that starve would try to do something about it.
If you’re sick you might not be able to. If you find a job or charity successfully you’ve averted the death. If you tried to steal and fail you’ll get on the executed list, or if you got wounded but got away, you’ll be on the bleeding list, or if you succeed then you dont die on the street.
I imagine those six would have the “died of unknown causes” phrase attached to them in modern times.
I didn’t even think of that. Thank you for the info!
You guys are all laughing about ‘planet,’ but I’ll have you know my uncle died of a cerebral hemorrhage when Neptune hit him on the back of the head. And we all thought it was just a glancing blow, but two days later, he dropped dead right in the middle of the supermarket.
You won’t laugh so hard when it happens to someone you care about.
Imagine being proudly offed by Pluto and then they make it not a planet any more.
And so they have to change it to “celestial body” in the obituary
I would want “lump of star shit” in my obit.
<img alt="" src="https://lemmy.zip/pictrs/image/056503d7-1995-4b20-98d3-beb96cbebf19.gif">
I never thought to combine deaths by cancer and by wolves to save space or because they’re similar enough. I can’t comprehend why they thought it was a good idea either.
It wasn’t cancer cancer, it was a big crab that lived in the Thames that hung out with a wolf.
Maybe they mean lupus? I think wolfes were already extinct in the 1600s on the British isles.
“Killed by several accidents.”
lol.
Kill’d
Kil’d
Kil’d to death 💀
Hah! Gonna take more’n ONE accident to kill me, you bastards!!!
So death by heartbreak is possible
Probably a nice way of saying suicide.
thats later on the list
Oh I missed “made away with themselves”.
You see it a lot in elderly couples. One dies right after the other.
That happened with our dogs. One of our dogs was crazy about the other, like she was his everything. She passed away, and he died in the middle of the night a few days later. They were both elderly, but he had seemed fine when we went to bed, other than being sad about losing his best friend.
Not just couples, Debbie Reynolds stepped out after Carrie Fisher died
French pox… CK3 RP incoming
Cancer, and wolf
And 10 at that!
Goddamn wolves, targeting cancer patients!
The ultimate partnership
The term I grew up with for botfly larva was wolves. Cancer was often diagnosed when the tumors erupted through the skin. The crab.
So, probably a bad death.
Wolf is an old name for Lupus, which of course is Latin for wolf.
<img alt="" src="https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/2d218f15-fd08-405f-bbbd-565d3a339dec.gif">
It took me a will to figure out it was not a joke…
This makes it seem like someone wielded the dog as a weapon
Maybe it was a comedy bit
“Suddenly” 😂
Ded .- RIP
I’m not half the man I used to be
Bacteria Virus Cancer Heart Condition Trauma Malnutrition Suicide Kidney Disease Heart Disease Liver Disease Parasite
What else am I missing?
Mostly, they died from a lack of medical knowledge.
Teeth
was thinking it’s still a bacterial infection that gets you, but you might have a point
Commas.
,8 deaths from plague? Fake news, China plague.
Lots of great ideas here!
That many people were killed by infants! /s
Wait, does chrisomes mean they died during baptism?
“Over-laid” sounds like death by snu-snu.
I volunteer!
Does “murthered” mean murdered? If so I’m surprised there’s only one. TV and movies make it look like life was cheap in old timey London.
consumption? 1797 people were eaten?
I think that means alcohol poisoningIt actually means tuberculosis
Not sure if I’m being whooshed, but Consumption refers to Tuberculosis
No. I’m just wrong, lol
Means tuberculosis.
This will make a useful crib sheet for reading the causes of death in the US next year under Health Tsar RFK Jnr .
What is King’s Evil and why did so many die from it?
en.wikipedia.org/…/Mycobacterial_cervical_lymphad…
Cancer, and Wolf: 10
🤔
Probably speaking of lupus. The only reason that somehow makes any sense 🤔
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.
Prest is such an elegant way to spell pressed