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 |
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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.
Cancer, and Wolf: 10
🤔
Probably speaking of lupus. The only reason that somehow makes any sense 🤔
Cancer, and wolf
Wolf is an old name for Lupus, which of course is Latin for wolf.
It took me a will to figure out it was not a joke...
"Killed by several accidents."
lol.
Hah! Gonna take more'n ONE accident to kill me, you bastards!!!
What is King's Evil and why did so many die from it?
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.
Kill'd by several accidents
When the universe is out to get you, but you survive the first accident
"Over-laid" sounds like death by snu-snu.
I volunteer!
This will make a useful crib sheet for reading the causes of death in the US next year under Health Tsar RFK Jnr .
I found a blog with a bunch of the definitions
https://www.neatorama.com/2022/03/09/Leading-Causes-of-Deaths-in-London-1632/
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.
Spelling "Lunatic" as "Lunatique" now. Shout out to the poor folks that just died in the street and starved. Surprised it's only 6.
Bit with a mad dog
This makes it seem like someone wielded the dog as a weapon
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."
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.
Lots of great ideas here!
So aggravating to not be able to sort by columns
You can read about the modern meanings of the words here:
https://mylittlebird.com/2021/03/public-health-stats-on-disease-in-1600s-london/