Need help from someone with medical knowledge!

[Allie]

Or maybe just someone good at reading doctor's writing.

Death certificate for JE Dickinson, co. M 7th Tenn Cav CSA. Can anyone tell me the cause of death here? The second word is "poison" but I don't get anything on the first word.

 

[FarawayFriend]

That is really tough, I have had a look in several dictionaries of Civil War medicine, but could not find anything.
I'd spell it E - n - r - a - e -m - s - e but that doesn't make sense.
How do you know the second word is "poison"?
I hope that bringing this thread up again will get someone more knowledgeable find the solution!
Good luck with it!

 

[BelleBlackburn]

I was wondering about the poison thing too. I almost wondered if it was a Q starting the word and tried to make quinine or something out of it. I just could not figure out the letters.

 

[Allie]

I was wondering about the poison thing too. I almost wondered if it was a Q starting the word and tried to make quinine or something out of it. I just could not figure out the letters.

The undertaker is named Pope. You can see the P's are identical.

 

[FarawayFriend]

The undertaker is named Pope. You can see the P's are identical.

Ah yes, very good!
Maybe the last letters of the first word are
m - i- n -e and it is no desease, but the name of the poison ... and could the second letter be a " p" also?
Enraemine or Epraemine?

 

[Allie]

Ah yes, very good!
Maybe the last letters of the first word are
m - i- n -e and it is no desease, but the name of the poison ... and could the second letter be a " p" also?
Enraemine or Epraemine?

I make it enraemine but that doesn't seem to be a word. Enamine is a class of poisonous alkaloids found in poison-arrow frogs but I highly doubt that as a cause of death for someone in Tennessee.

Anyone else got any ideas?

 

[Championhilz]

I wonder if it could be uremic poisoning and they just misspelled it?

 

[E_just_E]

You need someone who can decipher scribbles, not medical knowledge
The second word can be "lesion", the first word is likely an organ descriptor maybe "enteric" (intestine). Who knows?
82 years old, hard to see the poison part...

 

[MRB1863]

Allie,
Are you sure the second word is poison? Could it be prison?

 

[Allie]

I wonder if it could be uremic poisoning and they just misspelled it?

I think Championhilz has it - although it's hard to imagine a medical doctor being that illiterate, the doctor in this case is his son Roscoe and family letters suggest the family attitude towards spelling was fairly elastic. Uremic poisoning would make sense. Just plain old kidney failure.

On another note, it's good that I couldn't read this or I never would have looked closely at the doctor's name. I'm surprised it's even legal to sign a death certificate for someone you stand to inherit from, much less ethical to be a family member's doctor!

 

[FarawayFriend]

Well, if you think that's it, then that's it!
Thank you for that interesting riddle - it was fun investigating!

 

[MRB1863]

That was interesting! We're not real doctors, just play them on the forum!

 

[FarawayFriend]

That was interesting! We're not real doctors, just play them on the forum!

And we are no real detectives either, at least not me, but it was fun to act like one!

 

[MRB1863]

And we are no real detectives either, at least not me, but it was fun to act like one!

Agree with that Columbo!

 

[AndyHall]

Championhilz got it. "Euraemic poison" is an outdated spelling, but turns up lots of hits on the Google machine.

 

[FarawayFriend]

Agree with that Columbo!
View attachment 58517

MRB, Chief Inspectors @Championhilz and @AndyHall beat us at that.
Excellent job, both!

 

[Allie]

Championhilz got it. "Euraemic poison" is an outdated spelling, but turns up lots of hits on the Google machine.

So, not illiterate, just completely incapable of making a "u" that doesn't look like "n." Not unlike many modern doctors!