Causes of Death in 1632 London

[Ben]

Recorded deaths in 1632 London. I wonder if, 400 years from now, someone will post something similar and people will shake their head at whatever our equivalent of "rising of the lights" is. 

[WLJ]

Yeah, had to look up "rising of the lights"

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. Lights in this case referred to the lungs.

Note cancer and wolf. It was common to refer to cancer as wolf back then

Teeth 470. Lots of infected teeth back then.
Worms 27. Most people nowadays don't realize how big of a problem worms were and still are in some parts of world.

[WLJ]

"Kil'd by several accidents"
Wonder what they had on Hillary

[lee n. field]

Interesting numbers.

Deaths roughly balance births.  Infant mortality is quite high, by modern standards.  Relatively few die of just getting too old.  For all we think of it as a violent age, death by murder or execution isn't all that high in comparison to disease

I wonder who was keeping those "statistiks".

worms

Euuu.

[Tuco]

Piles. 
That's a helluva way to go.

[Pb]

Big cities tended to be population sinks, which could not keep their population steady from reproduction.  Instead, they depended in influxes of people from the countryside.

[JTHunter]

Big cities tended to be population sinks, which could not keep their population steady from reproduction.  Instead, they depended in influxes of people from the countryside.

AND, with the crowding and poor sanitation in the growing cities, that explains the number of deaths from infectious causes.

[WLJ]

"Cut of the stone 5"

Had to look that one up and yep it may be what you think.
Bet that was fun back in the day 

https://sites.ualberta.ca/~illness/diseases/new_kidneystones.html

[K Frame]

The number of people who died from Teeth.

My guess, abscesses that turned into systemic infections.

Jesus.

[Ben]

I had never heard of "prest to death" as an execution method. Apparently it's just not dropping a ginormous weight on the executed, but rather adding weight a little at a time until they die.

[K Frame]

Peine forte et dure... apparently used when someone refused to enter a plea. Interesting information on Wikipedia -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crushing_(execution)

The only time it was applied in what is now the United States was against Giles Corey during the Salem Witch Trials. He was accused of witchcraft and refused to enter a plea.

There was a British police procedural/thriller out a few years ago called Whitechaple. I HIGHLY recommend it -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitechapel_(TV_series)

The series is available for streaming on Hulu.

In the final season one of the murders is committed by peine forte et dure.

Again, I HIGHLY recommend this show.

[MechAg94]

The worms cause makes me think about all the people who like bloody meat. 

[K Frame]

The worms cause makes me think about all the people who like bloody meat. 

Fortunately the American commercial food chain is pretty darned clean when it comes to parasites in meat. Is it perfect? No, probably not, but it's a lot better than a bush meat economy.

That said, I saw a story sometime in the last couple of weeks that said that a family's parasitic infection had been traced to their eating undercooked bear meat.

My guess is that they got trichinosis...

Ah. Found the story.

https://www.msn.com/en-in/health/health-news/family-infected-with-brain-worms-after-eating-undercooked-black-bear-meat-know-about-the-roundworm-infection/ar-BB1n5ex7?ocid=BingNewsSearch



I knew a guy years ago who spent one summer backpacking across India or some other place.

He came back with a couple of parasitic infections. One of the drugs he had to take was basically arsenic.

[Northwoods]

Fortunately the American commercial food chain is pretty darned clean when it comes to parasites in meat. Is it perfect? No, probably not, but it's a lot better than a bush meat economy.

That said, I saw a story sometime in the last couple of weeks that said that a family's parasitic infection had been traced to their eating undercooked bear meat.

My guess is that they got trichinosis...

Ah. Found the story.

https://www.msn.com/en-in/health/health-news/family-infected-with-brain-worms-after-eating-undercooked-black-bear-meat-know-about-the-roundworm-infection/ar-BB1n5ex7?ocid=BingNewsSearch



I knew a guy years ago who spent one summer backpacking across India or some other place.

He came back with a couple of parasitic infections. One of the drugs he had to take was basically arsenic.

Pretty much every case of trich in the USA in the last 50+ years has been from bear or cougar meat.  Probably 98% bear.  Maybe a handful from feral hogs.

Domestic meat is only really implicated in bacterial contamination anymore.

[K Frame]

There are still a few cases every decade that originate in commercial pork. From what I can tell most, if not all, of those cases are associated with small, independently farmed pork.

I found a CDC report that seems to back that up but I've not had time to read the full report or see if they list more specific origins for the commercial pork cases. https://www.bing.com/ck/a?!&&p=9d8ff5c44202547eJmltdHM9MTcxNjg1NDQwMCZpZ3VpZD0xYTQwZjIwZS1jZjkzLTZiNjktMzk3YS1lMGNmY2VmMTZhNGQmaW5zaWQ9NTQ1MQ&ptn=3&ver=2&hsh=3&fclid=1a40f20e-cf93-6b69-397a-e0cfcef16a4d&u=a1aHR0cHM6Ly9zdGFja3MuY2RjLmdvdi92aWV3L2NkYy81NDU3L2NkY181NDU3X0RTMS5wZGY&ntb=1

But yeah, the vast majority of the cases are from game meat.

The incident I linked below indicated that the infection was caused by a freeze resistant variety of the round worm. Combine that with the meat being under cooked and... fun times!

[Northwoods]

https://honest-food.net/on-trichinosis-in-wild-game/

Fantastic source of information on trichenosis in meat, and how to cook infected meat safely.

[JTHunter]

https://honest-food.net/on-trichinosis-in-wild-game/

Fantastic source of information on trichenosis in meat, and how to cook infected meat safely.

Good article !

[WLJ]

For some strange reason I only just now noticed "Planet"
After a google search found a explanation of many of the terms used for the causes of death on the list

https://www.reddit.com/r/coolguides/comments/f3c2hi/cause_of_deaths_in_london_in_1632/

Note: For Planet - aka planet-struck, any very sudden severe illness or paralysis that was thought to result from the "influence" of a planet. Like how the moon (luna) was once thought to cause insanity (creating lunatics).