Deaths in London 1632

Some amazing causes there. The English language used to be fantastic didn't it! Kil'd by several accidents. Not just one! Over-laid and starved at nurse sounded like a sexual fetish gone wrong at first...unfortunately the true meaning is horrific.
 
I was so intrigued by the entry 'Rising of the lights', I had to Google it. Following is taken from Wikipedia.

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 seventeenth century. Lights in this case referred to the lungs.
 
Kings Evil

"Tuberculous lymphadenitis (scrofula) was known as the “king's evil” in Europe, where the royal touch was believed to cure the disease until the 18th century. 1. Cervical lymphadenitis is the most common presentation of extrapulmonary tuberculosis."
 
Dogtanian said:
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  • Ague = feverish illness, often malaria

  • Apoplex = stroke (the rupture or clogging of a blood vessel in the brain), paralysis resulting from a stroke - sometimes also refers to other spontaneous causes of internal bleeding like burst aneurysms

  • Meagrom = migraine, severe headache - this obvious symptom could be deadly if it originated from things like a brain tumor, bleeding within the brain / stroke, concussion / TBI / swelling within the brain...

  • Bloody flux, scowring, flux = dysentery / bloody diarrhea or otherwise severe diarrhea, often from diseases like cholera

  • Childbed = death during or shortly after giving birth

  • Chrisomes = death of unbaptized infant / death of infant less than a month old

  • Colick, stone, and strangury = severe abdominal pain, bladder/kidney stones, rupture in abdomen (appendicitis, bladder rupture, etc)

  • Consumption = tuberculosis

  • Cut of the stone = died during/from the surgery to cut out bladder/kidney stones

  • Dropsie and swelling = edema, swelling of a body part

  • Falling sickness = epilepsy, seizures

  • Flocks and small pox = smallpox, other diseases causing pustules over the body like cowpox and chickenpox

  • French pox = syphilis poxy french twats spreading the lurgies

  • Jaundies = jaundice, yellowing of the skin and eyes often a symptom of liver failure

  • Jawfain = "jaw fallen" / lockjaw, often tetanus

  • Impostume = abscess, a deep infection full of pus

  • King's Evil = scrofula, aka tuberculosis infection of the neck glands. The touch of a king was said to cure this disease.

  • Lethargie = depression?

  • Livergrown = unknown, some think it might have been another term for rickets or it could be from diseases which resulted in a swollen, enlarged liver - things like chronic alcoholism, hepatitis, or congestive heart failure.

  • Made away themselves = suicide

  • Murthered = murdered

  • Over-laid = infant that died after being unintentionally smothered / parent rolled onto them while sleeping

  • Starved at nurse = insufficient breast milk, or the child had a disease that caused them to "fail to thrive" / not gain weight and die even though being fed

  • Palsie = palsy, paralysis or other muscle difficulties

  • Piles = hemorrhoids severe case of the shat shits whilst glued to the bogs

  • 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).

  • Pleurisie = swollen, inflamed pleura - the membranous tissue surrounding the lungs

  • Purples = bruising, especially wide-spread - many causes

  • Spotted feaver = typhus or meningitis

  • Quinsie = tonsillitis / inflamed tonsils, especially when abscessed and obstructing breathing

  • Rising of the lights = as an organ meat, lungs are often called "lights" because they are very light-weight organs. Nobody's sure about what exactly "rising of the lights" was, but it may be related to severe coughing and the perception that during a cough the lungs would rise up in the chest. Perhaps croup, a respiratory disease causing a severe 'barking' cough.

  • Suddenly = unknown sudden death

  • Surfet = overeating / gluttony, vomiting from overeating. Aside from direct "death from overeating" it may have been a grouping for many types of death that often went along with being overweight - death from untreated diabetes, cushing's disease, heart failure, etc. "Surfet" also might have been the cause-of-death given if someone over drank, passed out, and died from aspirating their own vomit.

  • Teeth = dental infection leading to death

  • Thrush = yeast overgrowth / yeast infection of mouth (or genitals)

  • Tympany = either abdominal tumor growth, or other bloating/distension of the abdomen - especially when air or gas is caught within the abdomen or intestines, causing a hollow sound when thumped

  • Tissick = cough, can also refer to the coughing and wasting away of tuberculosis

  • Scoused = Spat on by the scousers
 
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