Does anyone know what "Wearing" is??? I don't think we will ever know the exact cause of death. It was probably one of those illnesses that causes a person to slowly wither away to nothing and probably quite literally starve to death. This could be just about any disease that killed slowly with few outward signs of illness. Diabetes, Cancers, Anorexia, M.S., A.L.S., Cystic Fibrosis and many others that have names and treatments now but back then were just " He/she just wasted away and died." There were no methods of treatment and few tests anyone could do to figure out what was wrong with a person unless they showed obvious symptoms .such as fever, coughing, bleeding, lumps, bumps or pock marks - the rest were just lumped into the category of "Wearing away" Most diseases have only had names applied to them within the past 100 years. Nelson Denton Internal Virus Database is out of date. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 9.0.733 / Virus Database: 271.1.1/2684 - Release Date: 02/12/10 14:35:00