A fate WORSE than death.
The current Covid-19 global crisis gives this generation a real sense of what living through a pandemic is like. We have all had to adjust and change the way we live our daily lives.
However, for our ancestors, death and infectious disease was an everyday hazard of life. With lack of medical and scientific knowledge, often common human ailments such as dysentery were killers. It really was a game of Russian Roulette. If you were in the wrong place at the wrong time then your number was up!
I've picked out some of the more unusual illnesses suffered by some of our ancestors. Some of them will really give you the shivers. The next time you hear yourself about to mutter the words ' I'd rather die! ' think again! Sometimes there really is a fate far worse than death!!
Encephalitis Lethargica. More commonly known as sleeping sickness. This disease attacks the brain, leaving victims in a statue-like condition, speechless and motionless. The epidemic ran its course between 1915 and 1926. The exact number of people infected is unknown, but it is estimated that more than one million people contracted the disease during the epidemic, which directly caused more than 500,000 deaths. Many of those who survived never recovered. Victims would experienced an overwhelming desire to sleep and would sleep for abnormally long periods of time, but were easily awakened and often aware of everything that had transpired around them while asleep. Most experienced rigidity and lack of movement with no noticeable weakness. Patients were very slow to alter their posture, and any such movements were minimal. Patients often exhibited waxy flexibility. In this state, patients remained rigid and immobile for long periods of time, emotions were hardly noticeable on masked faces. In effect victims would become living statues. It affected people of all ages, but the most vulnerable to the disease were young people of between 15 and 35 years. From what is known, the initial stages of the infection were no different than that of flu infection: a high fever, headache, feeling tired, runny nose. There was no way for the infected to know that he or she was battling a deadly disease, which gave the virus just enough time to spread into the brain. From our family tree, Mary Jane Mullen died of this strange disease. She was the grandmother of my Uncle Frank Allan, on his mothers side. She died on the 5th of August 1930 at Kirklands Mental Hospital, Bothwell. The disease took 9 months to kill her and by the end death was a mercy.
Paralysis Of The Insane. GPI was originally considered to be a type of madness due to a dissolute character, when first identified in the early 19th century. The condition's connection with syphilis was discovered in the late 1880s. However it wasn't until the 1940's and the use of penicillin, that the condition was rendered avoidable and curable. Prior to this, GPI was inevitably fatal. Victims would experience all sorts of weird symptoms. Symptoms of the disease first appear from 10 to 30 years after infection. Incipient GPI is usually manifested by fatigue, headaches, insomnia, dizziness, etc. As the disease progresses, mental deterioration and personality changes occur. Typical symptoms include loss of social inhibitions, asocial behaviour, gradual impairment of judgment, concentration and short-term memory, euphoria, mania, depression, or apathy. Subtle shivering and minor defects in speech. We learn from the cases of our infected ancestors that it radically altered their personalities. From our family tree several family members died of this horrible condition. Most notably Catherine McCarron and Alexander Waterston.
Tuberculosis also known as consumption, was a disease caused by bacteria that usually attacked the lungs, and at the turn of the 20th century, the leading cause of death in the UK. As the most feared disease in the world, it was known as the "Great White Plague" (due to the extreme paleness of those affected), striking down the young and old, the rich and poor. It seemed no one was safe from tuberculosis. TB is spread from one person to the next through the air when people who have active TB in their lungs cough, spit, speak, or sneeze. Typically, but not exclusively, consumption is a disease of the lungs. If left untreated, symptoms include fatigue, night sweats, and a general “wasting away” of the victim; as well as a persistent coughing up of thick white phlegm or sometimes blood. Far to many of our ancestors fell victim to this deadly disease. On many occasions it wiped out whole families.
Scarlet Fever is a bacterial illness that develops in some people who have strep throat. Also known as Scarlatina, Scarlet Fever features a bright red rash that covers most of the body. Scarlet fever is almost always accompanied by a sore throat and a high fever. The rash is red and feels like sandpaper and the tongue may be red and bumpy. It most commonly affects children between five and 15 years of age. Serum from horses' blood was used in the treatment of children beginning in 1900 and reduced mortality rates significantly.
Cholera. Four major outbreaks of cholera between 1832 and 1866 ravaged the UK and led to the death of tens of thousands of people. Once contracted, symptoms of this deadly disease included stomach cramps, vomiting, severe pain in the limbs and severe dehydration that, if left untreated, may suddenly assume a fatal form, sometimes within hours of the first symptoms. Sufferers appeared sharp and contracted, the eye sinks, with a look of terror and wildness. The skin is deadly cold and often damp, the tongue always moist, often white and loaded, but flabby and chilled like a piece of dead flesh. There was no known cure, and the sense of panic among the populace and government was palpable. The accepted theory at the time was that cholera was air-borne, transmitted via poisonous vapours, from rotting of organic matter. In actual fact, cholera is a water-borne disease produced by the bacterium vibrio cholera and transmitted via contaminated water sources. In the mid-1800s, the UK's poorest were surrounded by their own and others’ filth, as basement cesspits overflowed due to the lack of efficient sewage system. Rivers, the main source of drinking water for residents, became more and more polluted.
