“teeth and worms”

[Jib]

Thought of Mission and others after I read this online article. Maybe some of you will find it of interest.

http://www.history.com/news/2011/12/05/17th-century-londoners-died-of-fright-itch-and-grief/?cmpid=Social_Facebook_Hith_12052011_1

[Mission]

;That is interesting. I am often asked what the survival rate was and I usually said, "Well I read somewhere that this operation..." Except I usually don't quite know where I read it.I know naval ship's surgeons were required to keep track of mortalities by disease type in their Journals, but I don't think that info has been collected and sifted through.

[Fox]

The bills of mortality in the eighteenth century newspapers make for interesting reading too, revealing a few odd deaths. One of my favourite is the woman who was crushed to death at the execution of John Gow.

[Jib]

But what my friends is the disease known as "teeth and worms"? That sounds horrible.

[Mission]

I don't know what Jib was referring to vis-a-vis his link unless it was causes of death.

However, when I first saw the title, it reminded me of a theory (which was popular before the GAoP) that rotting teeth were eaten from the inside by little worms. This is what was thought to cause tooth-aches and rotting from the inside leading to what were basically hollowed out teeth. This may have been because a white nerve was sometimes visible when the tooth was extracted. This is not mentioned in any of the reputable surgeon's manuals I have read from the GAoP and seems to have fallen out of favor by the end of the 17th century. However, there were still a lot of untrained folk-practitioners and quacks who extracted teeth at this time, so it might still have been around as a workable theory amongst these self-taught tooth-drawers.

[Jib]

the article mentions "teeth and worms" as a cause of death.

[William Brand]

The bills of mortality in the eighteenth century newspapers make for interesting reading too, revealing a few odd deaths. One of my favourite is the woman who was crushed to death at the execution of John Gow.

My brother was almost crushed to death by the pressing crowd at a 'They Might Be Giants' concert. I had to fight my way into the press to save him. He was still recovering hours later. Nasty way to die.