Friday, 13 February 2015

Consumption and deathlyness

I feel that death had become an obsession during the Victorian era as so many occurred. If you were lucky to survive child birth and childhood you were only expected to live untill the average of 22 which seems ridiculous in this day and age were the average age of death for a person is around 76 years. By being surrounded by death  the Victorians excelled at telling ghost stories which still has the power to consume readers today. It is tradition in today's society that the dead are at a funeral parlor untill they get burried with only 18% dying at home spending there last few days of being alive away from home comforts and family where as in the victorian era many died as children and were kept at home. It was normal to have known someone who had died recently or to even have had a sibling die there were many reasons why children didnt survive infancy and they were; being malnourished,diseases or accents. Also the hygiene level was at an all time low the water they bathed, drank and cooked with had high chances of having animal fesses in it which added to the low standard of health. 

Small pox 
small pox is a contagious disease that usually resulted in death the symphtoms of small pox are; Fever,Overall discomfort,Headache,Severe fatigue,Severe back pain and Vomiting, possibly.The first symptoms of smallpox usually appear 12 to 14 days after you're infected.  After a few days small red spots appear over your skin Within a day or two, many of these lesions turn into small blisters filled with clear fluid, which then turns into pus. Scabs begin to form eight to nine days later and eventually fall off, leaving deep, pitted scars. Small pox was a major danger for people as there still is no cure. Queen Elizabeth 1 had small pox but was lucky as she didn't go blind as many do if the escape death she was left with the scars from the disease.















Other harmful diseases were TB were its victims would suffer from coughing fits untill there lungs deteriorated. And also going back to bad hygiene is where Chloral water which was a big issue during the time as the water either had human waste or animal wast in it. but was a struggle to avoid drinking the tainted water as poor people has nothing else to survive on creating a viscous circle of bad health.
Posted by at

1 comment:

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)