re: Diseases and causes of death - one week in London - 1665

This was at the time of the Great Plague of London. There are some interesting tidbits found on wiki about the misrecording of deaths.

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Graunt recorded the incompetence of the Searchers at identifying true causes of death, remarking on the frequent recording of 'consumption' rather than other diseases which were recognized then by physicians. He suggested a cup of ale and a doubling of their fee to two groats rather than one was sufficient for Searchers to change the cause of death to one more convenient for the householders. No one wished to be known as having had a death by plague in their household, and Parish Clerks, too, connived in covering up cases of plague in their official returns.

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And on the conditions of the city:

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n the poorer parts of the city, filled with overcrowded tenements and garrets, hygiene was impossible to maintain. There was no sanitation, and open drains flowed along the centre of winding streets. The cobbles were slippery with animal droppings, rubbish and the slops thrown out of the houses; they were muddy and buzzing with flies in summer, and awash with sewage in winter. The City Corporation employed "rakers" to remove the worst of the filth, and it was transported to mounds outside the walls, where it accumulated and continued to decompose. The stench was overwhelming, and people walked around with handkerchiefs or nosegays pressed against their nostrils

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And everyone’s favorite, quarantine:

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As plague spread, a system of quarantine was introduced, whereby any house where someone had died from plague would be locked up and no one allowed to enter or leave for 40 days. This frequently led to the deaths of the other inhabitants, by neglect if not from the plague, and provided ample incentive not to report the disease. The official returns record 68,596 cases of plague, but a reasonable estimate suggests this figure is 30,000 short of the true total.[24] A plague house was marked with a red cross on the door with the words "Lord have mercy upon us", and a watchman stood guard outside

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LINK

That bullshite they pulled with the "s" that might as well be an "f" still pisses me off. It was reason enough on it's own to leave that joint and eventually go to war.

I really don't want to get the Kingsevil.

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I died of the Purples.

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So that's how they ID'd the gays back then.

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Interesting that they noted where the drowning deaths happened. I wonder why.

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Segregration

The one who was marked as having died suddenly was the lucky one. I’d much rather drop of a heart attack than suffer with 95% of these other causes.

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Looks like 3 people died from “truth.”

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That says Thrush.

Feaver.

Wonder how the one "frighted" casualty happened.

Griping of the guts sounds like the runs/ diarrhea where serious enough one could die of dehydration. Remember you would not want to drink the water of 17th century London.
Dysentery and cholera were major killers. This was before microscopes and the discovery of bacteria and viruses.
Best to live way out in the country during that time.

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