Thread: TB, consumption in Victorian times.

Hi



I know how bad the TB illness was in Victorian times and the lung TB was a wasting disease of the lungs.



If say a woman had died in 1856 of "Phthisis, for 2 years" then she would have been ill for a while before dying, what would the husband of the suffere do? If it was infectious then obviously he'd have kept away from his dying wife most of the time for fear of infection.



What would it have been like for female sufferers of TB? I wouldnt have thought they would have worked until they dropped would they as they would be too ill.



Its like my ggggrandfathers first wife Esther Roberts died of "Phthisis, for years certified" obviously she was ill for a long time before she died. She died in Nov 1863 and on the March 1861 census she was a school mistress. But I wouldnt think she was as ill in 1861 though as she was still working? Also she would have been infectious so she'd would have been kept in isolation otherwise she'd infect her hubby and others.



Ben

Hi Ben,



I have an old catalogue of Second hand and out of print books which seemed to have a good one in. The only problem is that this catalogue is dated 1997.



Maybe this is somewhere that you may get some answers.



http://astore.amazon.co.uk/the_workh...g=UTF8&node=12

Hi



I know that through the research that Thomas Roberts was the father of the baby if he wed the mum and baptised her as his daughter after the wedding. If his wife had Phthisis when the mum fell pregnant then that gave him an opportunity to have an affair.



He knew that she was in decline, coughing, tired and unwell and in pain etc and as they lived in a seaside town with lots of people she was maybe in a poorer condition in the last year, explaining why her hubby had the affair.



Ben

I have quite a few female rellies who died of phthisis, often after having children. I think there were different forms, some of which took longer to kill you than others.

Hi



Glad to see you also on here Helen. Everyone I know Helen and met her at a genealogy conference. She is a very helpful lady.



How long after the children were born did yours die of phthisis anyway?



Could giving birth have weakened the immune system, hence contracting phthisis?



Esther Roberts gave birth in Feb 1860 to a baby boy who died in March 1861 of atrophy, 2 months certified. Could the pregnancy have bought on the illness?



Ben

Hiya!



My great-great grandmother died about a year after her last baby. But it was an uncertified death so I don't know how long she'd been suffering.



Another great-grandmother died of TB which she'd had for 3 years.



Pregnancy places a great strain on the mother's body though how it would affect someone who already had TB I don't know. I do know that the mother's lung capacity expands during pregnancy (though in my case it felt they were contracting, when my little darlings chose to kick me!)

Hi



Pregnancy could have weakened our female ancestors immune systems and made them contract TB.



In those days TB was a long, slow and drawn out illness. I think families had to keep away from the sufferers but in them days I am not sure if they knew the full dangers. By then, relatives caught it.



If a spouse of a sufferer survived then they probably were wary around the infected person but was in attendance.



Ben

Perhaps I can explain and clarify some misconsceptions about the diagnosis of phthisis on death certs.

Not all 19th century peple who are recorded as "died phthisis" or "consumption" were suffering from tuberculosis.



The word "phthisis" is Greek for consumption, yes, and this is what happens. The body, mainly the lungs in the case of TB, are consumed and atrophy.



However, there were/are other forms of phthisis. In women, fibroids were a major cause of women slowly (or quickly if they haemmoraged) fading away (fibroid phthsis). Fibroids weaken the system and then other infections can also invade, speeding up the suffer's demise, as obviously would happen by having a baby, or being worked too hard.



In babies, phthisis was sometimes recorded as "did not thrive" or "atrophy".



Until the advent of Xrays no one knew about lung, blood, bone, and other wasting cancers that did not obviously show on the surface as a growth or ulcer. Such cancers also cause consumption of the rest of the body, and sufferers, even of lung cancer, do not always have a cough until the last few weeks, sometimes never at all. In the 19th century many unseen cancerous conditions were recorded as phthisis.



Some skin cancers where called the "White Plague" because the skin loses its color, and like most cancers caused people to lose weight until they were skeletal, if they didn't die first of exhaustion. Similarly with leukemia.



Quite often, as we know from experience today, people with unseen cancers would be able to work and live normally until the last few weeks of their lives, without showing any real symptoms. Those that couldn't, because of coughing, blood loss, or exhaustion, were most often those who actually had infectious TB or an aggressive unseen cancer. Early on, it was not known that TB was caused by germs, so until the 20th century sufferers of real TB were not isolated, thereby spreading the disease.



Now we come to the real killers and causes of many kinds of phthisis. Constant exposure to dusts from all sorts of industrial processes, noxious fumes, and gases ditto which particularly attacked the lungs, causing disease and atrophy of same.



Children as young as 8 died of of phthisis through (we know today) of inhaling cotton dust whilst working 12 hour shifts under the cotton looms and sleeping in the same place. Similarly with adult workers. I think everyone has heard of the "coal dust disease" of miners. Also modern asbestiosis.



In big towns and cities, the fumes and smoke from chimneys, ships, trains, and dust from paper mills, mines, chemical processes, fabrics manufacture, etc etc all played a part.

Country people did not escape either. Haymaking and harvest time, as well as other working and living conditions, created grain dust, pollen, animal hair talcum, etc. to which the worker was exposed.



Until the 20th century when society, pricked by the voices of the Trade Union Movement, started looking at industrial diseases and air pollution seriously, things did not change. That, and the medical profession admitting that tuberculosis was spread by germs.



I could go on and on, but I think you get the picture. Phthisis is consumption of the body, particularly the lungs, but it was not necessarily caused by an infectious disease like tuberculosis.

Hi



In March 1861, Thomas & Esther Roberts son died aged 13 months in Brighton of "Atrophy, 2 months certified".



In November 1863, Esther died of "Phthisis, years certified" so obviously she had been ill for a long time before she died. The number of years isnt given but obviously it was a long while.



Her hubby would have known that she was dying so no wonder why he'd want comfort. He was a servant and footman.



I reckon her being ill had something to do with the babys birth in February 1860 and his death of atrophy in Mardch 1861. This could explain it then. She probably developed phthisis after this event, and as you say maybe fibroid phthisis.