Genealogy Chat

Just got a death cert and it says cause of death ' general paralysis of the insane' ..... family tales say that he died after a street fight so would it mean Brain haemorrhage or has anyone any other ideas?

Hi dizzy. Very sorry to tell you General Paralysis of the insane is the terminal stage of syphilis. One of the earlier features is an uncontrollable rage. Sufferers often get involved in violent confrontations. Sounds a horrible end. Regards Bill

Just found this: General paresis, also known as general paralysis of the insane or paralytic dementia, is a now-rare neuropsychiatric disorder affecting the brain and central nervous system, caused by syphilis infection. It had been considered a psychiatric disorder before and during the nineteenth century, when it was first scientifically identified and discovered to be extremely common, because the patient usually first sought—or was brought for—treatment because of psychotic symptoms of sudden and often dramatic onset. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_paresis_of_the_insane I just had to email that to my Dad, it was his Uncle's death cert! dizzy

I wonder if his wife/widow knew what it was! Very sad! dizzy

I was told many years ago, by a Professor of Genito-Urinary Medicine, that Syphilis was never put on a Death Cert, to save the feelings of the family. GPI, or General Paralysis of the Insane, is what appeared instead. However, several people on here do have death certs where syphilis is given as the cause, so my Prof was wrong. OC

OMG this is so spooky tonight. I was just laughing with my Son about someone in the tree dying of syphilis... i turned round and everything was closing down and my PC turned itself off! I got back on and had a reply from another relative of the man in question. Now i can't open my tree (FTM) to give her the details of who is who etc). Uncle Joe must not be happy with me!!!!

Perhaps your man was in a mental institution at some point. My Grandfathers first wife died of this in Brentwood mental hospital. A friend of the family was a nurse there before it closed and she told us that it was endemic amongst the patients (it closed in 2000) I guess if you have few pleasures in your tortured life you'll seek comfort from anywhere.

Thats a good point Janet. That might explain why he died in Dartford when he lived in Islington! I will have to do some in depth searching! dizzy

Syphilis was the fifth commonest cause of death in 1995 - yes, 1995. Aids wasn't even in the top 100. Of course, you only have to have sex with one person who has syphilis to catch it - many innocent and faithful wives died of it, and many men caught it from their one and only experience with the local loose woman, or while abroad during the war. Because it was such a taboo subject, many men didnt even know they had it, and even if they did, there was no cure till the advent of M and B just before WW2. Or worse still, they bought some quack cure, and because the symptoms disappear very quickly after the initial infection, they must have thought they were cured. OC

Have a google of the address on his death certificate.

Tried Googleing 1 Bexley lane Dartford ... all i get is Planning applications and ofsted reports! :(

try this dizzy bexley mental institution or bexley hospital got this from it Bexley Asylum at Bexley in Kent was opened by the London County Council in 1898. Nigel Roberts has a set of plans for 'the Heath Asylum Baldwyn's Park Bexley', with the name of 'Geo T Hine 1896' on. The chapel was designed to seat 850 people. David Cochrane speaks of a 'striking similarity to the design' Hine had used at Claybury Compact Arrow Website (October 2006) on the history of Bexley Hospital In 1907 a death certificate was signed 'London County Asylum, The Heath, Dartford, U.D.' (information from Michael Ball). The City of London Asylum at Stone was on the opposite side of Dartford. The Bexley Asylum became Bexley Hospital, Old Bexley Lane, Bexley, DA5 2AW. It has now closed. Between 2001 and 2007, Dartford Council plan to build houses on it, plus a new primary school and the 'retention of community facilities' (Kingswood Ward (archive) was a rehabilitation ward for adults with severe and enduring mental health problems. External link to Edenwood, Old Bexley Lane, Bexley - ( 'I live in Bexley and the local asylum was known as Bexly Mental Hospital, it has now been demolished and is a vast estate of new houses which is still growing. They have kept the main building, i think because it was listed, and turned it into a fitness centre for the local residents'

Thanx for that Kim, I had found the 'The City of London Asylum at Stone ' last night and assumed that it would be the only Mental Institution in Dartford. So it seems 1 Bexley Lane was the Bexley Asylum. I wonder why they didn't put that on the Death cert? Now I have to see if I can find records from there! dizzy

Dizzy Again, to spare the feelings of relatives. I can't remember the exact date - sometime in the early 1900s - the Registrar General issued instructions that certificates were no longer to include the names of Institutions such as Workhouses or Asylums, merely the postal address. There was such a stigma to being born/dying in the Workhouse, or dying in a mental Institution, and it was widely felt that possession of such a birth certificate would be a drawback throughout life. OC

My great grandfather also died from this. Have just this week received his medical records and thought you'd find the following 'amusing': '26.8.21 Same mental condition. When questioned he gazes in front of him and answers incorrectly, but not irrelevantly and then spits (he has a wonderful range in spitting) 21.9.21 He became sleepless and persisted in singing and step dancing' May I say that, now, when I find myself singing around the house, I have to stop myself (just in case I'm tempted to spit) lol Lewella

For anyone else interested, I have located the records for the 'Bexley Asylum': London Metropolitan Archives - Autum 2006 www.lma.gov.uk The records of Bexley Hospital were recently deposited in London Metropolitan Archive and have not yet been catalogued. They include: Medical Superintendent's reports 1907-1916 Staff registers 1897-1914 Patients' admission and discharge registers 1898 -1980 Patients' case books 1899 -1950s Death registers 1907 - 1982 Burial registers 1900 - 1917 As the records are at present uncatalogued, they can be made available for consultation by prior appointment only, made at least a week in advance. So .... a trip to London soon then!! thanx to everyone for your help! dizzy

Just read your thread and I wanted to say thank you. I found a relative, just a week or two ago, who had been in an asylum and then passed away the next year. Looking at her death cert., I couldnt quite make out what it said, but could read the words Paralysis and insane. After reading your thread, I looked again, and relised it said General paralysis of the insane, so she died of the same thing. I never would have known this otherwise, and had assumed she had died of Alzimers or something similar. I also took another look at her husbands death cert., which stated cause of death as hemiaplegia, which is some form of vertical paralysis, thought to be linked to strokes, although, im now thinking that he too could have died from the same illness as his wife, and was misdiognosed.

The other problem was that for a long time they treated syphillis with mercury which also made you mad,so it was a case of what was worse the disease or the cure. Of course remember many famous people died of syphillis including our own Florence Nightingale Regards Tania

As someone's said earlier in this thread, women were often infected by their husbands, maybe returning from abroad - or somewhere 'illicit' in this country. Because the symptoms were internal, rather than external as with men, the illness took hold without women becoming aware of it, and babies were infected by their passage through the birth canal with eye infections etc., as well as having the the 'bugs' in their system. When I worked in a psychiatric hospital, in the late '60's and early '70's there were a fair few patients with this illness, and as students we were told to take note because syphillis was dying out thankfully, due to better knowledge, care and cures. Sadly, it's now increasing again, with the particular risks it poses to women. Sad to see history repeating itself - at least our ancestors could justifiable claim ignorance. Bx

Nudged to help. Gwyn