Unusual causes of death

[Nick29]

It wasn't just watches.  Radio dials and other equipment in aircraft were also painted with luminous paint.

[Viktoria]

T hat`s a bit like the cause of Bisinosis, caused by inhaling cotton fibres when mill girls"kissed the shuttle"ie, sucked the thread through the small hole at one end  of the shuttle when joining a thread when a shuttle had run out. Of course cotton fibres were always circulating in the air in spinning mills anyway, no air filtration systems then .
As late as the 1950`s I can remember mill girls in Manchester walking home covered in cotton wool- like fluff. In their hair and all over their clothes.
 Could people die from phosy jaw?  The Bryant and May match workers protested didn`t they?
  I wonder why the phosphorus settled in the jaw .
                                                                                 Viktoria.

[syljun]

I have an "Accidentally suffocated" - 31st Dec. 1907.

Inquest held but was unable to obtain report. The mind boggles but perhaps the date says something.

Drunk maybe or something more sinister.

[giraffe]

My gt x 3 died in 1851 aged 59 from gangrene in the leg, according to the death certificate. He was a miner, but I have no further details.
giraffe

[Edward Scott]

Whilst looking at the PR's for Veryan I found 2 burial records that had notes against them presumably written by the Parish Clerk

Firstly - he was very old

Secondly - she drank a lot of gin last night

[Gaie]

Secondly - she drank a lot of gin last night

  

[TropiConsul]

I find it quite amazing what the newspapers used to print.

The Sandusky Daily Register, 10-Nov-1879, p. 4, col. 4- "Huron Items. The remains of Mr. Geo. Sprague, whose sudden death near Blue Rapids, Kansas, a few weeks ago was mentioned in the Register, were brought to Huron on Saturday last and buried in Scott Cemetery, Mrs. Sprague having gone to Kansas for the purpose. The circumstances of the death of Mr. Sprague were peculiarly sad. He had bought a farm just out of Blue Rapids, erected a house for temporary use, and was intending to remove his family in a few days. Apparently in his usual health he retired one night, another man sleeping with him. His bed-fellow was not at all disturbed during the night, and on awakening the next norning, spoke to Mr. Sprague and receiving no answer supposed he was still asleep, got up and went about his affairs. No one having occasion to go to Mr. Sprague's room, his death was not discovered for two days after. Mrs. Sprague found her husband's affairs properly covered for by an adminstrator, who turned them over to her, and she sold the Kansas property and closed up her husband's business before returning. The deceased had a policy in the Mutual Relief Association of Wellington, and his widow and fatherless children receive the benefaction of about $1,400. "

[Jean McGurn]

One of my ancestors - a 20 yr old lad - who worked for  the Liverpool Tramways and was part of the gang who erected to electric wires,  was holding the horse and cart during a storm when one of the links (rings)  broke and the cable crashed down hitting him on the head.

He died a couple of hours later in hospital and when the inquest was held, it was adjourned so that the Board of Trade could submit their findings. At the second inquest it was found that the practice of tapping the rings to see if they were ok was to be abandoned. The B of T said all rings had to be checked before galvanising. It appears that the link that broke quite obviously it was faulty and this had been masked by the galvanising.

Reading the inquest reports in the Liverpool Mercury it solved a puzzle I had been given. This was that one of my McGurn ancestors had his name on all the buses as being the General Manager of the omnibus company. In fact it was one of the Owens ancestors because the initial inquest report stated that Chrisptophers uncle "the late Mr E.Owens was Traffic Manager of Liverpool Tramways" so it must have been his name on the side of the trams.

Jean

[Billyblue]

My gt x 3 died in 1851 aged 59 from gangrene in the leg, according to the death certificate. He was a miner, but I have no further details.
giraffe

Giraffe, it could have been from a number of things.
Bearing in mind it was 1851...
He may have been diabetic and didn't know, and any small cut could have let to it, or his diet etc.
Being a miner, he could have sustained an injury which didn't heal (no antibiotics those days) and it turned gangrenous.  It apparently didn't take long.  A cousin of my great grandfather was shot in the leg by his wife's lover (!!) and they had to amputate, and he was dead within a few days from gangrene.  This was in the late 1800s.

Or a wound sustained some other way that got dirt in it, then infection, then gangrene.

Thank goodness it's a rarity these days.

Dawn M