@@@ On 11/19/2010 2:23 AM, Bronwyn Klimach wrote: > Have you seen this? :)) > * > http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/nottingham/hi/people_and_places/history/newsid_9172000/9172619.stm > * > > ### below > My greatgrandfather died of erysipelas and gangrene of his face. People > died of things like that pretty routinely before antibiotics. In the case > of Polish plaits, not being able to even see the infection would put off > treatment for way too long and there probably wasn't much treatment > available even then. > ### I thought of you without even knowing about the ery... and gangrene. > How do you seem to get so much information/TMI while I have almost none of > this sort of thing - apart from gr-uncle who was injured in WWI and went on > to die of nasty consequences? @@@ When I was relatively new at genealogy, this Polish greatgrandfather's death certificate was the first death certificate I had ever ordered. In those days, I expected to get fairly normal causes of death and was completely grossed out when I saw and looked up his cause of death. It was quite awhile before I ordered another death cert! =-O > I hope the scarey photo of a healty Ranita has not given you nightmares etc. @@@ Not at all. It was a fun picture. > Bron. > > > On Fri, Nov 19, 2010 at 5:04 AM, Michele<[email protected]> wrote: > >> I hadn't missed it. I read about it and was quite horrified! >> Ickblaghhhhyuksheesh!>:o >> >> On 11/18/2010 4:09 PM, Bronwyn Klimach wrote: >>> Michele, >>> I could not bear the thought of your having possibly missed this one! >>> Bron. >>> >>> On Tue, Nov 16, 2010 at 4:21 PM, Fred Hoffman<[email protected]> >> wrote: >>>> Hi, >>>> >>>> Karen Carpenter wrote: >>>> >>>>> I hope this isn't a repeat question. (I'm new to the list.) My >>>>> gggrandfather's death record lists his cause of death as koltuny which >>>>> translates to tangles. What does that mean? >>>> The reference books tell you _koltun_ means "trichoma" or "plica >> polonica," >>>> an illness connected with matted hair. I didn't know till just now that >>>> English has a term for it: "Polish plait." See here: >>>> >>>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_plait >>>> >>>> I found this by going to the Polish Wikipedia site and searching for >>>> _koltun_ (with a slash through the L). Here's the Polish page: >>>> >>>> http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ko%C5%82tun >>>> >>>> At the left are links to similar pages on the Wikipedia sites for other >>>> languages, one of which is English. And that led me to the article on >>>> "Polish plait." >>>> >>>> This is always worth trying if you're looking for an unfamiliar term. >> The >>>> Polish Wikipedia may not have anything on it; or if it does, there may >> be >>>> no >>>> corresponding page in English, or the connection between the two may be >>>> erroneous. Also, you have to get the Polish spelling of the word right, >>>> including the diacritical marks. But a search of the Polish Wikipedia >> can >>>> prove very helpful. Sometimes, a Google search will lead you to a Polish >>>> Wikipedia page, and that may enable you to bypass the need for inputting >>>> Polish characters with diacriticals. >>>> >>>> I must admit, I've never quite understood how a hairstyle or even a >> disease >>>> of the hair could be fatal. But I guess anything that allows >> inflammation >>>> or >>>> infection can lead to death. Often, these causes of death are not very >>>> scientific. The person filling out the record frequently had no medical >>>> training. He just wrote down whatever was the most prominent symptom, >> even >>>> if it was only indirectly related to the cause of death -- or, in some >>>> cases, had nothing to do with the death. But if an otherwise >>>> healthy-looking >>>> person died, and the only thing you could find wrong was a massive >> tangle >>>> of >>>> hair with infection, I guess _koltun_ or the Latin word, _plica_, could >>>> seem >>>> like the right thing to record. I do know from my experience, you run >> into >>>> _koltun_ and _plica_ as causes of death far more often than you'd >> expect. >>>> Anyway, I hope that clarifies things for you! >>>> >>>> Fred Hoffman >>>> Co-Author, _In Their Words ... Vol. 1: Polish_ >>>> www.fredhoff.com >>> http://www.nuvoforheadlice.com/Plica.htm >>> >>> Interesting, lengthy overview of plica polonica and its manifestation >> over >>> the >>> centuries in different countries. >>> >>> Barbara Proko > ********************************* > Need to contact the list manager? Write to Marie at [email protected] > ---------------------------------- > Discussion of Polish food, culture, and customs are welcome on the list as long as the discussion stays pertinent to the topic of this list: researching our Polish roots. > ---------------------------------- > Browse the list's archives here: > http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index?list=poland-roots > Search the list's archives here: > http://archiver.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/search?aop=1 > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message