I nearly edited my post to add the very point you made, Galiano.
I wonder too whether cancer was an identifiable disease at that time. Many modern diagnoses were unknown and diseases often had names that described symptoms that could have had a variety of causes.
This is a digression, I know, and maybe should go on a different thread, but this list of diseases etc. admitted to the hospital at Haslar makes interesting reading. I've 'lifted' this from a post made on our 'mothership' About Nelson.
Diseases, Wounds, and Accidents admitted into the Royal Hospital at Haslar, in 1780 (from Observations on the Diseases of Seamen, Sir Gilbert Blane, 1785)
Under the Physicians Care:
Continued fevers 5,539 Scurvy 1,457 Rheumatism 327 Flux 240 Consumption (TB) 218 Asthma 61 Small-pox 42 haemoptoe (coughng blood) 40 Intermittent fevers 33 Gravel 32 Measles 28 Dropsy (heart failure) 24 Epilepsy 19 Disorders of the bladder 16 Mania 16 Pleurisy and peripneumony 13 Palsy 9 Disorders of the ears 5 Cough, pain of side, and Lumbago 4 Scrophula 4 Anginae 3 Headache and vertigo 3 Disorders of the abdominal viscera 3 Disorders of the eyes 2 Haemorrhoids 2 Cholic 1 Jaundice 1 Epistaxis (nosebleed) 1
Total Physical Cases 8,143
Under the Surgeon's Care:
Ulcers, including wounds and abscesses 979 Venereal diseases 183 Cutaneous disorders 165 Contusions, trunk and limbs 102 Fractures 60 Amputations and sundry cases of lameness 32 Contusions, injuries of the head 31 Ophthalmia and disorders of the eyes 17 Disorders of the testicles 16 Fistula in perinaeo 12 Erysipelas 12 Fistula in ano 8 Luxations 8 Affectations of the urinary organs 8 Burns 4 Oedema of the leg or arm 4 Ruptures 3
Total Surgical Cases 1,644
Note: 1 in 13 admitted to hospital at this time died. In 1813, it was about 1 in 30
_________________ Anna
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