# Causes of death recorded in London 1632 - incl wolf, suddenly and rising of the lights



## editor (Feb 15, 2020)

This is interesting stuff:

Causes of death recorded in London 1632

Notables: death by...
Cancer and wolf
Cut of the stone
Rising of the lights




from Reddit:


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## maomao (Feb 15, 2020)

Lights = lungs like in haggis I assume.


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## blossie33 (Feb 15, 2020)

Teeth seem to have been a big cause  
.....and what was Kings Evil?!


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## planetgeli (Feb 15, 2020)

Just 7 murders? Haha. Yeah, right.


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## Throbbing Angel (Feb 15, 2020)

maomao said:


> Lights = lungs like in haggis I assume.



correct


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## kebabking (Feb 15, 2020)

Fistula.


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## AverageJoe (Feb 15, 2020)

Killed by several accidents sounds like a really terminal case of a slapstick movie


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## Lord Camomile (Feb 15, 2020)

Only 3 people died by bleeding, which is surprising. Unless it was the medical kind, rather than just straight up blood loss.

Also, one person died of piles and another of sciatica?? Were they _ever _fatal??


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## petee (Feb 15, 2020)

one person was scared to death.


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## Shippou-Sensei (Feb 15, 2020)

I notice the person who is trying to explain 'some of the more odd or confusing items' does touch 'Cancer, and Wolf'

Which leads me to wonder if there was some form of lupotherapy for cancer patients or  that person simply doesn't want to touch that one.


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## weltweit (Feb 15, 2020)

What was that statement about life in olden times? 

Dirty Brutal and Short! 

Something like that ..


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## Supine (Feb 15, 2020)

Lord Camomile said:


> Also, one person died of piles and another of sciatica?? Were they _ever _fatal??



Yeah, in 1632


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## tim (Feb 15, 2020)

Planet 13: clearly Martians coming here and killing our ancestors. I'm so glad all their canals dried up.


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## RubyToogood (Feb 15, 2020)

weltweit said:


> What was that statement about life in olden times?
> 
> Dirty Brutal and Short!
> 
> Something like that ..


Nasty, poor, brutish and short.


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## weltweit (Feb 15, 2020)

RubyToogood said:


> Nasty, poor, brutish and short.


Do you recall who said / wrote it?


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## belboid (Feb 15, 2020)

weltweit said:


> Do you recall who said / wrote it?


Thomas Hobbes


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## mx wcfc (Feb 15, 2020)

blossie33 said:


> .....and what was Kings Evil?!



I was likewise perplexed, but....

The *King's Evil* was the name given to scrofula, the swelling of the bones and lymphatic glands in the neck. Now recognised to be tuberculosis. From the time of Edward the Confessor, *King* of England 1003-1066, it was a superstitious belief that the disease could be cured by royal touch. 

I was surprised to see cancer identified, but it seems we have known about it for centuries.  

It would also be "interesting" to know how many people were found "Dead in the  sStreet" in recent years.


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## Yossarian (Feb 16, 2020)

Shippou-Sensei said:


> I notice the person who is trying to explain 'some of the more odd or confusing items' does touch 'Cancer, and Wolf'
> 
> Which leads me to wonder if there was some form of lupotherapy for cancer patients or  that person simply doesn't want to touch that one.



"The Wolf" was what they called cancer of the legs.



> 'Tis a Disease which attacks not only the Breast, but several other Parts, on which it is not less outrageous: It sometimes assumes different names; when it comes on the Legs, 'tis called the Wolf, because if left to itself, 'twill not quit them 'till it has devoured them; when it fixes on the Face, 'tis called a Noli me tangere, because that touching irritates it, and makes it a greater Ravage: Authors also observe, that there are besides Tumours and cancerous Ulcers in several parts of the Body, which I shall not mention to Day.












						Wombs, Worms and Wolves: Constructing Cancer in Early Modern England
					

Abstract. This essay examines medical and popular attitudes to cancer in the early modern period, c.1580–1720. Cancer, it is argued, was understood as a cruel a




					academic.oup.com


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## WouldBe (Feb 16, 2020)

Lord Camomile said:


> Only 3 people died by bleeding, which is surprising. Unless it was the medical kind, rather than just straight up blood loss.
> 
> Also, *one person died of piles* and another of sciatica?? *Were they ever fatal??*


Depends how bad they bleed.  

Rising of the lights - literally coughing your lungs up.


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## farmerbarleymow (Feb 20, 2021)

mx wcfc said:


> I was surprised to see cancer identified, but it seems we have known about it for centuries.


I think its been known about for thousands of years - vaguely remember reading about evidence of early surgery way back in The Emporer of all Maladies.  Interesting book by the way.


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