From Tuesday April 12 [1715] to Tuesday April 19, within the Bills of Mortality, London.

(Christned) Males 153, Females 159, In all 312, (Buried) Males 203, Females 223, In all 426, increased in the Burials this Week 34. (Casulaties) Drown’d herself (being Lunatick) at St. Olave in Southwark 1. Found dead in the street, at St. Magnus the Martyr 1. Hang’d himself (being Lunatick) at St George in Southwark 1. Kill’d by a Dray, at St Martins in the Fields 1. (Diseases) Aged 33, Bursten 1, Cancer 3, Childbed 2, Chrisoms 1, Colick 1, Consumption 52, Convulsion 135, Dropsie 3, Evil 1, Fever 78, Fistula 1, Gout 1, Griping in the Guts 10, Jaundies 3, Measles 1, Mortification 3, Plurisie 3, Purples 1, Quinsie 1, Rickets 1, Rising of the Lights 1, Small-Pox 19, Spotted Fever 11, Stilborn 11, Stoppage in the Stomach 3, Teeth 33, Thrush 1, Pussick 6, Ulcers 2.

Weekly Journal With Fresh Advices Foreign and Domestick (London, England), Saturday, April 23, 1715.

Bursten – hernia or rupture
Cancer – cancer
Childbed – died during childbirth
Chrisoms – a child that died within a month after baptism
Colick – acute abdominal distress, usually infants
Consumption – lung disease, often tuberculosis
Convulsion – seizure, causes unknown
Dropsie – oedema; heart failure
Evil – possibly “Kings Evil” or scrofula which may be tuberculosis
Fever – unexplained fever
Fistula – usually an abnormal passage between two organs
Gout – gout
Griping in the Guts – influenza like symptoms
Jaundies – jaundice; liver ailment
Measles – measles
Mortification – often gangrene or necrosis
Plurisie – pleurisy
Purples – usually diptheria
Quinsie – abscess of the throat
Rickets – caused by vitamin D deficiency
Rising of the Lights – usually croup
Small-Pox – smallpox
Spotted Fever – often typhus
Stilborn – stillborn
Stoppage in the Stomach – intestinal blockage
Teeth – dental
Thrush – fungal infection
Pussick – no reference found
Ulcers – ulcers

 

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2 COMMENTS

    • You’re welcome. I was looking for newspaper articles on smallpox in the early 1700’s and stumbled across this mortality listing for London. I thought I’d run across most of the older terms for diseases over the course of my research, but there were quite a few here that I couldn’t even guess at and had to look up!

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