At 10:59 AM 11/14/97 -0600, Carol A Johnson wrote: >Death records are one of the important sources of genealogical information. >. . Also a source for amazement, if one reads the "cause of death" section. > The most popular cause was "consumption" but amost as many died of >"chronic". Unlike other contagious diseases that struck an area and after >a while, moved on, "comsumption" and "chronic" remained for years! >"Bilious" took it's toll as did a variety of fevers, i.e. lung, glandular, >nervous, brain and "new moany". Children fell victim to hives, croup and >summer complaint. One thing that might give you a chill would be a quick check of medical education: before 1917 (the Flexner Report), there really weren't any, except that most medical students spent time observing a practicing physician. Medicine, which has been attracting many of the best and the brightest in this country since at least 1940, was regarded quite differently before then, especially before World War I. Even today, with all the blood tests, radiologic procedures, and in-office procedures, doctors can still not know what's really wrong with the patient. (I've had personal experience with this: my situation was resolved last year after the thyroid tumor was taken *out* and examined. Mysteries ain't fun to the afflicted.) Back then, there were almost no blood tests, x-rays were questionable, and, if all else failed, there might not be an autopsy -- and, if there was an autopsy, the true cause of death still might not be determined. Elizabeth Whitaker elwhitaker@shtc.net computer columnist, THE BETHUNE PAW PRINT http://Web.InfoAve.Net/~elwhitaker (new version) ==== NCORANGE Mailing List ==== Larry Noah - lrnoah@bigfoot.com - Listowner - NCORANGE mailing list Orange Co, NC USGenWeb site is at http://www.rootsweb.com/~ncorange