Your daily dose of 18C history

[akashiver]

I turned this up in today's research. It's seasonal and everything!

How might you have died in 18C London, you ask? Well now you can find out:

From the London General Bill of Christenings and Burials, Dec 10 1771 - Dec 15, 1772"

# Christened: Males 9172, Females 8744 # Buried: males 13185, Females 12868

Died under 2 years of age: 9112
Between 2 and 5: 2894

5 and 10: 1006
10 and 20: 1056
20 and 30: 2086
30 and 40: 2307
40 and 50: 2301
50 and 60: 1905
60 and 70: 1619
70 and 80: 1205
80 and 90: 473
90 and 100: 84
100 and 105: 5

Cause of death (highlights):

Convulsions: 6605
Consumption: 5179
Grief: 3
Evil: 32
Fever: 3207
Headache: 2
Rising of the lights: 1
Small pox: 3992
St. Anthony's fire: 2
Teeth: 725
Bit by mad dogs: 1
Starved: 6
Lethargy: 5
Murdered: 2
Drowned: 147
Excessive Drinking: 8
Killed thmselves: 47
Childbed: 194
Executed: 15
Cancer: 6
Bleeding: 6
Scurvy: 5
Sore throat: 13

Comments

[vschanoes.livejournal.com]

I like "grief" as a cause of death.

[akashiver.livejournal.com]

Yup. Though that's not as good as the reasons for getting put in Bedlam asylum in the 18C: #1: Disappointed Love, #2 Religious Enthusiasm, #3 Blows to the Head, and my personal favorite, #14, Excessive Study.

[d-c-m.livejournal.com]

Hey those lights will get ya' every time.

[erdedrache.livejournal.com]

I wonder what it's like to die of evil. And I utterly refuse to believe their murder statistics.

[akashiver.livejournal.com]

Ditto on the murders. I think some of that evil might have been murder-related, actually.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

Bills of Mortality make great reading.

(For certain values of "great.")