London's Dreadful Visitation or the Bill of Mortality from 1664-65

April 2 2020

Something a bit different. In light of the current pandemic, I thought it would be interesting to review how pandemics were progressing and recorded in olden times. This is concerning the Great Plague of London in 1665, cause by a bacterium, Yersinia pestis.

The data in the Bill of Mortality of this time covers causes of death from the 27th of December 1664 to the 19th of December 1665.

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This is a simplistic diagram on the progression of plague death between the 27.12.1664 to the 19.12.1665. While there is a tiny cluster in early May, it is on the 23. May 1665 that the cases steadily increase. On this date, there are 14 deaths. Bubonic Plague has an incubation time of 2 to 6 days.

The second part of the diagram shows the peak as it was recorded here, with 7165 deaths in late September 1665. By late October, there’s a recline, with 4929 deaths recorded.

Actual Numbers

Problematically, these are most certainly not the real numbers of death at the time. Reasons are plentiful:

  • people did not die in hospitals, but at home
  • there was no law forcing anyone to report a death
  • death counts were overseen by ‘Searchers for the Dead’, who, for a nominal fee, went out and checked on people, judging what they might have died of. This was a dangerous,badly paid, and stigmatising job and thus usually done by elderly women without any medical knowledge
  • searchers often depended on the local sexton for their reports, thus non-Anglican Christians or Jews were rarely counted
  • households did not want to be known to have plague deaths, both for the stigma and the threat to their lives (houses with plague victims were locked up for 40 days, with all occupants inside), and could easily bribe the searchers to change the cause of death to something more respectable
  • misdiagnoses and bribery saw other illnesses mysteriously skyrocket, most notably ‘Feaver’ and ‘Consumption’

It must be assumed that the real number of deaths during this time is around 100.000.

All Other Causes of Death in London’s Dreadful Visitation

(and a quick explanation of the most curious ones)

Abortive = Miscarriage

Aged

Ague = Malaria

Apoplexie = Stroke

Bedridden

Blasted

Bleeding

Bloody Flux = Dysentry

Broken Legge

Bruised

Calenture = Heatstroke

Cancer

Canker

Childbed

Chrisomes = Child dead in its first month of life

Cold

Collick

Consumption = Tuberculosis

Convulsions

Cough

Distracted = Perhaps senility?

Dropsie = Edema

Executed

Feaver

Fistula

Flox and Small-pox

French-pox = Syphilis

Frighted

Gangrene

Gowt = Gout

Grief

Griping in the Guts = Abdominal Cramps

Headache

Head-Mould-Shot = Craniosynostosis (crushed soft plate in newborns)

Jaundice/Jaundies

Imposthume = Abscess (filled with pus)

Infants = Yet unable to Speak

Barking

Kingsevil = Scrufola (Tuberculosis of the Neck

Lethargy

Livergrown = Enlarged Liver

Meagrome = Migraine

Measles

Mother = Childbed Fever?

Mouldfallen = Craniosynostosis (crushed soft plate in newborns)

Overlaid = Crushed (likely a baby by an adult)

Palsie = Paralysis

Plannet = Death by misaligned Planets

Plurisie = Inflammation of the Lungs

Purples = Blood underneath the Skin

Quinsie = _uffocation by Tonsilitis

Rickets

Rising of the Lights = Croup

Rupture

Sciatica = Pain in the Hip & Back (death by treatment?)

Scowring = Diarrhea

Scurvy

Shingles

Sore Breast

Sore Legge

Sore Mouth

Sore Throat

Spleen

Spotted Feaver = Either Typhus or Meningitis

Stilborn

Strangury = Inability to Urinate (symptom for UTI’s or Kidney Issues)

Stone

Stopping of the Stomach = Tenesmus (inability to vacate bowels)

Suddenly = Better than Slowly?

Surfeit = Excess of - unclear what the excess was here

Teeth = Possibly death during teething in an infant

Thrush = Fungal Infection

Timpany = Bloating of the Digestive Tract

Tissick = Lung Problems (Asthma, Bronchitis, Tuberculosis)

Ulcer

Vomiting

Wen = Abnormal Growth on the Skin

Winde = Gastrointestinal Issue

Wormes

Wounded (At Sea)