The
burial site at the Catholic Mission of St Mary and St Michael was only used for
eleven years. Many of the graves were for Irish immigrants who arrived during
the period of the Irish famine (1845-1852). Many bodies found appear to have
been dressed in their ‘Sunday best’ and buried in stacks over a wide time-frame
(from coffin plates), in graves up to 4 metres deep. It appears that 62 per
cent of the bodies are of sub-adults, with the peak of deaths in the one year
age group.
From
nicotine on men’s teeth it is possible to tell that one-quarter of men smoked a
clay pipe. The same men had a lower average age at death that non-smokers, while
lesions on the rib cage indicate that the smokers had a higher than average
rate of chest infections. This information provides evidence of health but not
the cause of death. The introduction of refined sugars was another factor in
reducing dental health of the population. Dental plates for the rich were
available from the mid-eighteenth century and were made from ivory and
human teeth and springs were attached to the plates to keep them in place,
although they would have been very uncomfortable.
George Washington’s dentures. Image @Samuel D. Harris National Museum of Dentistry, Baltimore
Child
health is also reflected in dental records. One-third of children suffered from
‘Bottle Caries’, i.e., severe tooth decay in infants or young children caused by
bacteria found on a bottle or comforter held in the mouth. Children of all
classes were put with wet nurses, some of whom would have been given milk
substitutes. In addition, because babies were ‘swaddled’ and kept out of the
light to avoid them looking like peasants, many children suffered from rickets
through vitamin D deficiency (lack of exposure to sunlight/ultraviolet light).
Rickets caused bones to soften and mineralise, so that the body weight caused
the bones in the legs to bow. There was no sign of rickets in the adult
remains, which raises questions as to whether any children survived to
adulthood in. this community who suffered from the disease. [The discovery of vitamin D and the
identification of the properties of cod-liver oil in the prevention and
treatment of rickets by the 1930s made it possible to treat children]. However,
the cemetery in Bow
showed a high death rate at birth, in which case the process of birth was the
greatest risk for infants.
Unclaimed
bodies were found in graves at the London Hospital, Whitechapel, where bodies
were used for dissection and anatomy. However, when Sir William Blizzard opened
the medical school he gave instructions for the burial of remains in coffins
with proper east/west burial traditions. Although patients with syphilis were
banned from general hospitals, the London Lock
Hospital [opened 31 January 1747] was the first venereal disease clinic
and the first of the Lock Hospitals
developed for the treatment of syphilis. The disease might not be detected
until between 2 and 10 years after infection. It went through 3 stages in which
the tertiary stage caused skeletal changes which are evident in the corpses
found.
Image: http://sickcityproject.wordpress.com/2013/08/02/anatomy-of-the-city-12-the-london-lock-hospital/
For more information see http://www.museumoflondonarchaeology.org.uk/
This is the last of six blogs in which I hope to have given a flavour of the topics covered at the conference on Medicine and Mortality.
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