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General => The Common Room => Topic started by: tilly56 on Tuesday 27 November 07 09:07 GMT (UK)

Title: Understanding a "Cause of Death" - COMPLETED
Post by: tilly56 on Tuesday 27 November 07 09:07 GMT (UK)
Please does anyone know what the following means :

Morbus Cardis  14 years

I know morbus Cardis but wondered what the 14 years meant?  The person who died was 36 and died at home.....

Many thanks

Tilly
Title: Re: Understanding a "Cause of Death"
Post by: Shropshire Lass on Tuesday 27 November 07 09:27 GMT (UK)
Where I've seen a time period on the death certificate it has indicated how long the person had the illness before death.

Monica
Title: Re: Understanding a "Cause of Death"
Post by: alunno-a on Tuesday 27 November 07 09:54 GMT (UK)
Hi, I agree to that--from my death certs of relatives it looks like a time was given , often "certified x years" where it was a contagious desease such as TB, or where official note was taken of long term illness--for receiving parish, or charitable relief etc. I also wonder if they put this to show a post mortum was not nescessary (is that how you spell that??)
Sally
Title: Re: Understanding a "Cause of Death"
Post by: PrueM on Tuesday 27 November 07 10:34 GMT (UK)
Agreed - the time stated after a cause of death is usually (always?) the period for which the person has been suffering from that condition.

Morbus Cordis is a general term for disease of the heart.  You might find this site interesting, if you haven't already seen it - lots of old terms for medical conditions and really useful for interpreting old death certificates!

http://www.antiquusmorbus.com/Index.htm

Cheers
Prue
Title: Re: Understanding a "Cause of Death"
Post by: tilly56 on Tuesday 27 November 07 12:04 GMT (UK)
Hello Sally, Prue and Monica

thank you very much for your reply - I too thought that it might mean the length of time the person had been ill................this ancestor, Gt Grandfather Herbert Clifford, is variously said, in the family, to have caught "Brights Disease" during the Boer War or caught something nasty travelling up (or down?) the Amazon...............So I suppose whichever one it was (more likely the Boer War than the Amazon I think! ;D), could have given him a weak heart............

thanks again

Tilly
Title: Re: Understanding a "Cause of Death"
Post by: toni* on Tuesday 27 November 07 12:06 GMT (UK)
Brights Disease was Kidney Disease (named after Mr Bright) now split into different type of kidney disease but you couldn't catch it.

Title: Re: Understanding a "Cause of Death"
Post by: tilly56 on Tuesday 27 November 07 13:56 GMT (UK)
Hello Toni

Thank you for the info - I was told that he apparently he caught the disease following an encounter with a rat........

I found morbis cardis at the following site :

www.paul_smith.doctors.org.uk


I have just had another look and he also mentions Bright's Disease.

I think I shall put the link on the useful links page.................

tilly

Title: Re: Understanding a "Cause of Death"
Post by: toni* on Tuesday 27 November 07 14:09 GMT (UK)
well i didn't know this bit re Brights Disease  :o:~

Historically, Bright's disease is often a catch-all for kidney diseases, but strictly speaking is glomerulonephritis, which may be a complication of streptococcal sore throat
Title: Re: Understanding a "Cause of Death"
Post by: tilly56 on Tuesday 27 November 07 15:23 GMT (UK)
Yes, it's quite interesting - but not really bedtime reading................... :P

ps : quick question - is it ok to post a link to this site - or should I have asked them first? ???
 
Title: Re: Understanding a "Cause of Death"
Post by: Smelly Kelly on Tuesday 27 November 07 15:28 GMT (UK)
More likely to be Morbus Cardis for a period of 14 yrs resulting in the person's demise,cheers Smelly



Please does anyone know what the following means :

Morbus Cardis  14 years

I know morbus Cardis but wondered what the 14 years meant?  The person who died was 36 and died at home.....

Many thanks

Tilly
Title: Re: Understanding a "Cause of Death"
Post by: john_w on Tuesday 27 November 07 20:42 GMT (UK)
The usual disease that follows from contact with rats - or more correctly, rat urine or saliva, is leptospirosis. Sometimes called Weils Disease.

A common complication of which is renal (kidney) failure. So his Brights disease could well have started as a consequence of an encounter with a rat.
Title: Re: Understanding a "Cause of Death"
Post by: toni* on Tuesday 27 November 07 20:45 GMT (UK)
that makes sense JOhn
Title: Re: Understanding a "Cause of Death"
Post by: tilly56 on Wednesday 28 November 07 07:42 GMT (UK)
Hello Toni, Smelly and John

Thank you for your help - however, it would seem that he didn't fight in the Boer War, I should have noticed that the dates didn't really fit :-[ -   So it would seem that he probably died from a weak heart, although of course I'll probably never know what brought it on...... He might have been in S. Africa at some time, as, when he died, his widow went to live there with some of the children and he could have been bitten by a rat anywhere - so maybe it's a case of a different stories getting muddled up and romanticized( ???spelling)...............

thank you again

Tilly


(Have posted this reply once, but something went wrong and it disappeared - so sorry if you get it twice!!)