Rancollisement of the Brain?

[Mary Anne]

Hello all,

I have recently found this cause of death on a death registration in 1871. The deceased was a 54-year-old farmer in Ontario.

Any ideas, anyone?

Thanks


Mary Anne

[tony vines]

Hi Mary Anne

Could this be the word? If so the link gives you a definition and an example

http://www.antiquusmorbus.com/English/EnglishR.htm#Ramollissement

[Mutley]

I think Tony may have hit the nail on the head. ;)

There are quite a few google hits for
Ramollissement
but most are in French.

[Mary Anne]

that sure looks like it, thanks Tony!

Mutley -- Grooooooaaaaan;)

[tony vines]

Glad to help. We live and learn! Sounds pretty gruesome doesn't it?

[Mary Anne]

Indeed it does.

The account I have, from all these years distant (he died in 1871), was that he made a will on May 22, and died June 12. His will, he apparently signed with a mark and not a signature...

the person recounting found it "interesting" he didn't sign with a signature "he may have been illiterate but he must have received some schooling as he was 17 when he arrived in Canada...I think it is more likely that he was too weak or incapacitated to sign his name"

Yeah, right with my brain dissolving, I can sign my name?!|shakehead

[tony vines]

Mary Anne

I'm not sure of the logic behind "he must have received some schooling ...etc." It would depend on where he came from before Canada. However, if it was England there was a system of National Schools which did indeed give basic education. On another thread several months ago I remarked how good the handwriting of my ancestors and relatives was in the 1911 census. That is the first one in England where the returns made by the householders have survived, so when you obtain an image you can actually see what the head of the house wrote in his/her own handwriting.

I was also interested to see that one head wrote his entries very clearly and then signed his name at the bottom but when he was married some years before he signed with a cross. One of the posters on this forum suggested that in those days ordinary people were sometimes anxious not to be seen to be too educated in front of officialdom - I cannot imagine why - but it might have explained why someone who could write well had signed with a cross.

However, in the case of a will it is probably more likely that the person concerned was indeed illiterate or too feeble (physically or mentally) to sign. After all there would have been no officials around at the time.

[Chris Doran]

Hi Mary Anne

Could this be the word? If so the link gives you a definition and an example

http://www.antiquusmorbus.com/English/EnglishR.htm#Ramollissement
Paul Smith's Archaic Medical Terms site says:



Ramollissement

Means a morbid softening of a tissue or organ. The modern equivalent is decay or atrophy

When used alone, it probably refers to the brain, when ramollissement could be a stroke or dementia or another euphemism for syphilis. However it could be any organ and be another euphemism for old age


Paul's site was similar to the one Tony quotes. It went away in 2007, but is available on archive.org where the last-dated link I can find that contains anything is dated 9-Feb-2004. Googling on "archaic medical terms paul smith" (without the quotes) will find some current pages with out of date links that get you there eventually. (Paul Smith's site has adverts so I can't give you a link here.)

[Mary Anne]

Tony - indeed, I did not really give much credence to the comment about schooling. Unless the person had seen an example of his signature somewhere before and she didn't mention that. We have to be so careful to not project our own assumptions about people onto them, don't we?

Chris -- thanks for that site, I will file it away for future ref. Indeed, I have assumed that the diagnosis could include any one of the illnesses that we now would group under a sort of "mental decay" category - stroke, dementia, venereal disease (although this one, I think, might be less likely).

This seems to have been a previously vigorous man, hard working on the farm, and able and willing to accumulate land which he did work, with his young sons and possibly his brothers who settled nearby. Just before his death he had purchased two farms that he was working, and had received the Letters Patent in April, just before his death in June. So, if he had a "brain problem" of some kind, then it seems reasonable to assume he made his will, thinking the end might come soon, and then was unable to actually sign it, although one wonders about the state of clarity his mind may have been in. I haven't seen the will myself, but apparently it is very clear about who gets what and instructions to his eldest son to look after the education of the younger ones and their welfare.

Anyhow, thank you all for the info and the sites. They will be a great help in future.


Mary Anne

[benny1982]

I had never heard of many medical terms before I started genealogy. Now I have purchased so many death certs my medical knowledge has skyrocketed. I often research the details of diseases my ancestors died from.