Author Topic: Cause of Death - was this really syphilis?  (Read 1044 times)

Offline ansteynomad

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Cause of Death - was this really syphilis?
« on: Thursday 09 January 25 13:23 GMT (UK) »
I have the Death Certificate, which says:

Chronic Encephalitis
Lethargica
Septic Sores
Exhaustion

I can see that the Registrar has saved the family's embarrassment by giving a street address rather than simply saying he died in the Workhouse, but isn't encephalitis as we know it more an acute infection?

I wondered if the Registrar was also covering up that he actually died of syphilis.

Any thoughts? Thanks in advance
Nottinghamshire: Billyard; Fletcher
Lincolnshire: Beck; Smith
Leicestershire: Goadby; Iliffe;
Warwickshire: Bradbury; Friswell; Gilliver; Beesley

Offline BumbleB

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Re: Cause of Death - was this really syphilis?
« Reply #1 on: Thursday 09 January 25 13:46 GMT (UK) »
I'm sorry for this, but I think you are misinterpreting the information.

OK, I'm not medically qualified, but, having consulted Mr Google, I cannot see where your connection to Syphylis comes from.  And I'm not sure about your assumption of the Workhouse comes from.  I have a copy of a 1946 death certificate where the street address is given rather than the name of the hospital. 

I also understand that workhouses were officially abolished, certainly in England, in 1930 - information taken from https://www.workhouses.org.uk/addresses/m.shtml.



 
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Offline ansteynomad

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Re: Cause of Death - was this really syphilis?
« Reply #2 on: Thursday 09 January 25 14:31 GMT (UK) »
Thanks for your reply. I'm happy with the workhouse point.

As to the other, I was just curious. Quite happy to be wrong (I often am) but wanted to be clear if I could be.
Nottinghamshire: Billyard; Fletcher
Lincolnshire: Beck; Smith
Leicestershire: Goadby; Iliffe;
Warwickshire: Bradbury; Friswell; Gilliver; Beesley

Online AntonyMMM

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Re: Cause of Death - was this really syphilis?
« Reply #3 on: Thursday 09 January 25 14:50 GMT (UK) »
The registrar is required to record the cause of death exactly as given by the doctor certifying and cannot choose what to include or not or vary it in any way. So if there was any decision to hide the underlying diagnosis/cause it would be the doctor who chose to do that.

The order of the conditions stated on the certificate is also important, and especially if they are numbered ( Ia, Ib II etc. )

The use of the street address instead of the term "workhouse" was the result of a direction given by the Registrar General in 1904.



Offline Erato

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Re: Cause of Death - was this really syphilis?
« Reply #4 on: Thursday 09 January 25 15:03 GMT (UK) »
Is encephalitis lethargica a possibility?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encephalitis_lethargica
Wiltshire:  Banks, Taylor
Somerset:  Duddridge, Richards, Barnard, Pillinger
Gloucestershire:  Barnard, Marsh, Crossman
Bristol:  Banks, Duddridge, Barnard
Down:  Ennis, McGee
Wicklow:  Chapman, Pepper
Wigtownshire:  Logan, Conning
Wisconsin:  Ennis, Chapman, Logan, Ware
Maine:  Ware, Mitchell, Tarr, Davis

Online Marmalady

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Re: Cause of Death - was this really syphilis?
« Reply #5 on: Thursday 09 January 25 15:08 GMT (UK) »
I am not medically qualified in any way -- but I too do not see where you are getting Syphilis from

1 Chronic Encephalitis -- Inflammation of the brain -- can be viral or bacterial (eg meningitis). Whilst encephalitis can be caused by syphilis, it is not automatically encephalitis = syphilis
2 Lethargica -- there is  Encephalitis Lethargica or a type of sleeping sickness
3 Septic Sores -- possibly bed sores?
4 Exhaustion -- as a result of suffering all the above?

Wainwright - Yorkshire
Whitney - Herefordshire
Watson -  Northamptonshire
Trant - Yorkshire
Helps - all
Needham - Derbyshire
Waterhouse - Derbyshire
Northing - all

Offline Gadget

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Re: Cause of Death - was this really syphilis?
« Reply #6 on: Thursday 09 January 25 16:31 GMT (UK) »
I think that Erato's interpretation (post #4) seems very plausible and the link she gives there seems to cover the description on the death cert.

Given the column for cause of death is quite narrow, it might be meant to read:

Chronic Encephalitis Lethargica
Septic Sores
Exhaustion

When did he die?


Gadget
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Offline ansteynomad

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Re: Cause of Death - was this really syphilis?
« Reply #7 on: Thursday 09 January 25 21:47 GMT (UK) »
He died in 1927.

Thanks everyone.

It looks like Encephalitis lethargica it is.

Another horrible condition I'd never heard of.
Nottinghamshire: Billyard; Fletcher
Lincolnshire: Beck; Smith
Leicestershire: Goadby; Iliffe;
Warwickshire: Bradbury; Friswell; Gilliver; Beesley

Offline Viktoria

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Re: Cause of Death - was this really syphilis?
« Reply #8 on: Thursday 09 January 25 23:42 GMT (UK) »
The usual term for Syphilis was “ Paralysis of the Insane” .
Winston Churchill’s father died from it ,
Amongst many others ——-
Viktoria,