Homeoprophylaxis

Words I grew up with, and which had sinister overtones were croup (bronchitis) quinsey (septic tonsillitis) lock-jaw (tetanus), dropsy (oedema associated with heart-failure and chronic kidney disease) St Vitus dance (scarlet fever with neurological complications - my cousin developed that), apoplexy (stroke or CVA), and consumption (tuberculosis). The pox and clap were in a category of their own (syphilis and gonorrhoea) as unmentionable ‘venereal diseases’. AgE 11 I heard about infantile paralysis, as there was an epidemic in the late 1940s. A schoolfriend developed it, and was put in an Iron Lung, but died soon afterwards.

The only ‘proper’ non-vernacular medical words I recall from childhood were diphtheria and ‘sugar diabetes’ which my mother told me I would contract from eating sugar. It frightened me to death, but my mother eventually saw that I was terrified and had the sense to retract her warning.

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Heard all that lot Pete, did folks nivver use, " In a decline", in thy neck o’ t’ woods then Marra? :slightly_smiling_face:

Can’t say I did, Bill marra. But these old sayings have great weight with us still, although they are mainly forgotten now. I recall that some folk used to talk in hushed tones about Missus D having a “growth”, which was the term most doctors in hospital used when telling patients their diagnosis, which - in the 1950s - they rarely volunteered, and most patients didn’t ask for.

Not a very cheerful discussion, but historical perspectives are usdful sometimes in making sense of the present. You Bill Morgan (and @Stella, @vero and @Helen6) are particularly lively and vivid historians, in my slender book! :open_book::grinning::+1: Pete

Ah, the ‘growth’, closely associated, with ‘declines’ in Whitehaven Marra, when I were just a lad, Arrrh! :thinking:

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The last bit is certainly true - the documented practice of variolation to protect against smallpox dates back as far as the middle ages in China, and was presumably being carried out before that.

Not sure about the cleansing action of moonlight though :slight_smile:

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