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Meanwhile, somewhere in 18th century London, people are dying from the small pox...

...and hemorroids. 
There's a macabre fascination with the stated causes of deaths and the proportions of death from each cause.  As we are looking at the eighteenth century, it will be of little surprise that small pox claimed many lives, 1206 deaths by small pox in an annual report of deaths in London.  That's more than ten times as many as those who died of mortification.  My image of a lady seeing another at the ball in an identical gown and snuffing it on the spot was ruined by reading that mortification is localized death of tissue, like in gangrene.  
The French Pox was clearly too busy talking about art and philosophy so only chalked up 76 deaths.  One poor sod died of piles, 46 from cancer, 99 drowned, one nervous soul was frightened to death, 3 murdered, only 5 slovenly people made the effort to die of lethargy and, in what I imagine was a freak carpeting accident, 80 people were overlaid.



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