Just wondering, does anyone know what the "Putrid Throat" actually was? My first thought is strep which I guess could get pretty serious without antibiotics, but would it cause high fever, delirium, and death?
shareI believe it was diphtheria.
sharePutrid throat was what a century later called diphtheria. Strep throat is a bacterial infection which is easier to treat with antibiotics. Diphtheria is a viral infection, and thus can cause epidemics unlike Strep throat. There is routine vaccination for it.
shareInteresting.
I found this article discussing the "putrid sore throat" mentioned in Jane Austen's Emma (chapter 13):
http://www.jasna.org/persuasions/on-line/vol21no2/bader.html
The article's author thinks that the putrid sore throat of contemporary medical textbooks may not be diphtheria.
Of course, we need to find out what Winston Graham intended the condition to mean.
EDIT A medical blog discusses what Poldark's putrid throat might have been. Pay particular attention to the second article:
http://www.microbiologynutsandbolts.co.uk/the-bug-blog/poldarks-putrid-throat
http://www.microbiologynutsandbolts.co.uk/the-bug-blog/poldarks-putrid-throat-revisited
If there aren't any skeletons in a man's closet, there's probably a Bertha in his attic.
Fascinating article and Winston Graham did say that it was diphtheria. Interesting enough, the writer Laura Ingalls Wilder and her husband came down with diphtheria, and it effected them for the rest of their lives. Thankfully their own toddler daughter was taken away before she was able to catch it.
Another interesting historical fact was that Lady Elizabeth Bowes Lyon's older sister died of diphtheria at the age of twelve a few years before her royal sister was born. If you go to Glamis Castle, there is a drawing of this sister and it's spooky how she looked almost exactly like the little sister who basically replaced her.
Thanks for sharing, kmill!
If there aren't any skeletons in a man's closet, there's probably a Bertha in his attic.
Diphtheria is not a virus, it's an infection caused by the bacterium Corynebacterium diphtheriae.
Thank you everyone for taking the time to answer my question- I appreciate it!
sharethank you so much for correcting this huge mistake about diphtheria being a doctor you can imagine how it felt please guys before writing anything on the net be sure of it some people might take what you wrote as a fact.wonderful show by the way I've been waiting for season 2 since last year😀😀😂
shareYikes, sounds putrid.
3 cheers for the dTaP vaccine!!
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