Reginald Burbush (1879-1883) Elsie Burbush (1881- 1883)

Today, we often associate death with old age. But we don’t have to go back far in history to find a time when childhood was both dangerous and deadly.

Death was a frequent visitor to Victorian houses with children at risk of dying from many diseases that we’ve eradicated or can treat today, like smallpox, measles, whooping cough, diphtheria, and typhoid.

In 1856, Archibald Tait—the future Archbishop of Canterbury—lost five children in just as many weeks to scarlet fever. When the fever wasn’t fatal, it nearly always weakened the child who often died months or even years later from its complications.  This was the fate of Beth in Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women.

Locally, Castle Bromwich Graveyard pays testament to a similar story. The Burbush grave gives this hint:

Here resteth the bodies of Reggie aged 3 years and of Elsie aged 21/2 years, the much loved children of W.T.Burbush and Emma his wife, who died July 16th 1883.

 

Reggie and Elsie’s death certificates how that they died a day after the symptoms of Scarlet Fever became apparent. Scarlet Fever first appears as a rash of tiny red bumps, usually on the chest and abdomen. It is often associated with a sore throat and ulcers and open sores sometimes develop in the throat. There can be a flushed face with a pale area around the lips often accompanied by chills and shivers due to an elevated temperature. There is also a loss of appetite along with nausea and vomiting.

Today, Scarlet Fever is less common and easily treated with antibiotics. In 1883 this was not the case. Treatment would have consisted of putting the patient to bed and keeping them at a constant temperature. Patients were taken off solid food and fed rennet-whey, rice water or broth. Medicines given included Epsom Salts, nitre, ammonia, carbonate and nitrate silver which were thought to counteract the poison from the fever. Doctors would sometimes shave a patient’s head, elevate it and apply cool rags.

Treatment was rarely successful; in 1840 Scarlet Fever killed 20, 000 people. During the Victorian Era such epidemics would occur cyclically in urban areas.