From: jrfox@no.spam.fastlane.net.no.spam (Jonathan R. Fox)
Newsgroups: sci.bio.misc,sci.med
Subject: Re: 17th century medical terms
Date: Thu, 17 Jun 1999 21:27:31 GMT

On Thu, 17 Jun 1999 12:47:44 -0500, John Saccente <brennan@lcc.net>
wrote:

>  I have recently been introduced to a list of causes of death of London
>citizens from the 17th century (apparently taken from a book entitled
>"Games, Gods and Gambling.")  Some of these names are quite bizarre, and
>I'm very curious to know which "actual" illnesses some of these names
>refer to :

These are pretty funny!  I'll take a stab at some of them...

> appoplex and suddenly

Apoplexy simply means dropping dead suddenly.  Supposedly it's usually
from a stroke but I'm sure lots of causes of sudden death, such as
Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, could be labeled apoplexy by early
pathologists.

> blasted (?)

Haha.  Wartime injury?

> collick and winde

Would suspect colicky abdominal pain and bowel obstruction (bowel full
of gas).

> convulsion and mother
> distracted
> frighted

?

> griping in the guts

Again, some acute abdominal catastrophe.  Possibly appendicitis,
pancreatitis, etc.

> palsie (?)

Palsy, which is paralysis.  Many possibilities, including polio,
multiple sclerosis, Guillain-Barre syndrome, etc.

> plannet (?)

?

> quinsie (?)

Quinsy is inflammation of the throat, such as tonsillitis with
abscess.

> rising of the lights

Uhh...

> stopping of the stomack

Another bowel obstruction.

> stone and strangury
> teeth and worms

These last two sound like someone ought to be able to identify them...

--
Jonathan R. Fox, M.D.

From: "Adrian Shanks" <abshanks@globalnet.co.uk>
Newsgroups: sci.bio.misc,sci.med
Subject: Re: 17th century medical terms
Date: Thu, 17 Jun 1999 23:28:15 +0100

> > stone and strangury
> > teeth and worms
>
> These last two sound like someone ought to be able to identify them...

Strangury is defined in French's  Index of Differential Diagnosis as  pain
before, during or after the act of micturition (urination) accompanied by
recurrent urgent need to attempt the act.  Each attempt may lead only to the
passage of a few drops of urine.  One cause of this would be a calculus
(stone) in either the bladder or the urethra.

One must assume that the patient had a stone (which was a common affliction
in the 17th. Cent.) and this ultimately caused complete obstruction to the
urinary tract.  Presumably then either acute renal failure ( from back
pressure) or rupture of the bladder followed.  Either of these would fatal
at that date.

Adrian Shanks MB. BS.