Deciphering a Cause of Death Please

[Pennines]

Believe it or not this man was 105 years old. (Supposedly)

The newspaper report said........
"......died on Thursday night from injuries on Tuesday from a fall downstairs.
The old man had passed through the recent cold weather very well and on Tuesday morning had got up and dressed as usual, and after having a basin of soup was endeavouring to descend the stairs by the help of his eldest daughter, herself about 80 years of age - when the woman found she was not equal unassisted, to the task.
She therefore got the old man to sit at the top of the stairs while she went for some help. However .... he appears to have thought he was able to get downstairs himself and attempting to do so fell from top to bottom.
On his daughter's return he was found lying helpless at the bottom. He was picked up and put to bed, but the shock he received proved so severe that it resulted in his death about seven o' clock on Friday night'

(Yes I did spot the discrepancy as to whether he died on Thursday or Friday.)

I do accept your point though about rheumatism not usually being a cause of death. Strange that no actual injuries are mentioned though --- it was possibly a combination of his age, his lack of mobility and the shock of the fall.

[willyam]

I've been looking through some old medical terms -

http://www.genproxy.co.uk/old_medical_terms.htm

Given that this cert was written by a registrar/clerk who had to interpret the doctor's writing, the only ones that seem possible on this list would be:

scirrhus  - cancerous tumours
screws - rheumatism -could it have been written screwchitis

Now I give up.

Gadget

Gadget's observation regarding the second-hand clerical interpretation of the doctor's handwriting is a point well made.

Given the great age involved here it may be that the cause of death was simply attributed to that of "Sarcopenia" - as referenced at this link: http://www.aginginmotion.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/sarcopenia_fact_sheet.pdf

Willyam

[Gadget]

A question though - would sarcopenia have been a known disease  then (1881) ?