Oooh, hate when that happens...

William Dyer and Mary Barrett lived in London/Westminster before theymarried in 1633. This is a Londonepidemiological table from 1632. This list was compiled by John Graunt, but his data came from"ancient matrons" who examined the bodies and interviewed thefamilies of the dead. Most of the ancient matrons were respected midwives licensed by the Church of England, whohad much more knowledge of the human body than did physicians.
Medical doctors had university theological training about the body, but nomedical school. If their patients were lucky, they had some observation and hands-on training from chirurgeons (surgeons). During witch hunts, both male and female healers were accused, imprisoned, and executed for their profession, because successful treatments may have been aided by the devil's intervention.
In this table, notice that 470 people died because of "teeth."
"Crisome" is an infant dying within its first month. The Dyers' first son William, born in October 1634, lived long enough to be christened, but was buried on the third day after birth.
"Consumption" may include tuberculosis, asthma, emphysema, blacklung, etc.
"Rising of the Lights" means lung disease, probably due to coal-smokeair pollution.
"French Pox" and doubtless some of the other mortality would beconsidered sexually-transmitted disease."King's evil" (fromthe belief that the king's touch would heal scrofula/tuberculosis)
Published on November 13, 2011 23:00
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