Fear of death: 1807

Hasty interment is still a prevalent custom in Russia; and even premature burials are said to be not quite unknown. A short time previous to my departure, the following horrid circumstance was related at St. Petersburgh...

--From La Belle assemblée--

You didn't just have to fear death, but getting sick enough that people would bury you anyway.

Germ warfare: 1665

She began by degrees to slacken in her constant coming to prayers and to sacrament, in which she had been before that regular, almost to superstition. She put that on her ill health: for she fell into an ill habit of body, which some imputed to the effect of some of the duke's distempers communicated to her. A story was set about, and generally believed, that the earl of Southesk, that had married a daughter of duke Hamilton's, suspecting some familiarities between the duke and his wife, had taken a sure method to procure a disease to himself, which he communicated to his wife, and was by that means set round till it came to the duchess, who was so tainted with it, that it was the occasion of the death of all her children, except the two daughters, our two queens; and was believed the cause of an illness under which she languished long, and died so corrupted, that in dressing her body after her death, one of her breasts burst, being a mass of corruption. Lord Southesk was for some years not ill pleased to have this believed. It looked like a peculiar strain of revenge, with which he seemed much delighted.

--From History of his own Times--

 I believe they are talking about syphilis.

Perspective: 1863

But if we take the case of a physical catastrophe, over which man has no control at all, such, for instance, as an earthquake, it may be remarked, that one of the severest on record, namely, that which desolated the Neapolitan provinces in 1858, swept away only about 20,000 persons in all the different places which lay in its path, whereas the present war in America, even if it were brought to a speedy issue, will have cost the lives of half a million of the human race.

--From Climate: an inquiry into the causes of its differences...--

We could wipe out billions of people in the blink of an eye, we will be able to for the foreseeable future, and politicians worry about secondary or tertiary problems which may never materialize, or may even turn out to be blessings!

Traditional western medicine: 1632

And not far from this Garden, in a sandy Desart, is the place called Mommeis, which are innumerable Caves cut foorth of a Rocke, whereunto the Corpes of the most men in Cayro, are carried and interred. Which dead bodies remayne alwayes unputrified, neyther yeeld they a stinking smell: Whereof experiments are plentiful at this day, by the whole Bodies, Hands, or other parts, which by Merchants are now brought from thence, and doth make the Mummia which Apothecaries use: The colour being very blacke, and the flesh clung unto the bones.

--From The totall discourse of the rare adventures...--

So, pharmacists would take the mummified copes of humans and use them in medicine. The tiger penises they use in traditional Chinese medicine sound pretty tame in comparison.

Death

Sometimes it becomes you.

Body Worlds: 1632

Looking at dead people is fun for the whole family.

Murder: 398

In quest of the fame of eloquence, a man standing before a human judge, surrounded by a human throng, declaiming against his enemy with fiercest hatred, will take heed most watchfully, lest, by an error of the tongue, he murder the word "human being"; but takes no heed, lest, through the fury of his spirit, he murder the real human being.

--From The Confessions of Saint Augustine--

 Don't mess with grammar!

Desperate Housewives: 1620

Jael hammering a tent peg through someone's head.

Why do people think religious paintings are boring?

Inglourious Basterds: 1620

The type of blood and gore you see in today's popular culture is without precedent.

Trophies: 1883

You could shoot a buffalo:

Or take the belongings of an Apache killed in a stampede you started:

"A pair of moccasins, taken from the saddle, fell to me ; they were unworn, and soft as a castor glove. I have them yet, and keep them because they were beaded by the warrior's love, the daughter of an arrow-maker who lives in a painted tepee off over the Sierras, by the loud-singing, but lonely, Gila."

--From Sport with gun and rod--

The article tries to make it sound like the Apache was up to no good, but I see no reason for the author to wax poetically about stuff he stole from a dead man.

Death circa 1100-1500

The statue is made so that embers can be put in its base, allowing smoke to come out of its eyes and mouth. Go ahead and look right at it; it's horrible and fascinating and maybe even beautiful.

Pet food : 1847

"If you wish to teach the Birds airs, or artificial notes of any kind, they must hear nothing that can in any way distract their attention. Every time you enter the room, the oftener the better, and especially when you feed them, whistle, or play on a flute or flageolet, the tune you wish them to learn. Whistle or play that, and no other. Repeat, and repeat, and repeat, until they can pipe it correctly."

People would capture wild birds of all kinds and either teach them human songs or raise them with nightingales so they would have a nightingale's song. Some people even sold birds that had been trained this way. But getting food to feed the birds could be troublesome:

"Take some meat, or fish, or a dead cat, rat, or dog, and hang it in a shady place until it is well fly-blown or maggoty. Then place it in a large box half full of earth, and cover. In the course of a week or ten days the maggots will bury themselves in the earth, and may be dug up, if the box is kept in a cold place, at leisure."

I wonder if the cats and dogs just happened to be dead, or were killed specifically for this purpose.

--From Manual of Cage-birds, British & Foreign--

Interesting ways to die: 1805

"In consequence of a wound in the groin, which he received in a duel..."

"Drowned herself by walking into the sea..."

"He was employed to remove a part of the wall between Dean-street and Dean-yard, when, owing to the badness of the foundation, the whole of the wall, near 20 feet long and 10 feet high, fell down upon him, by which he was so dreadfully bruised as to cause his death in a few minutes."

"They then followed the little dog up stairs, who led them to a room on the third floor, the window of which was open, and on looking out, they perceived Miss W. laying on a newly-dug bed in the Prince of Wales's garden, having thrown herself from the window. She was still alive, although she had fallen on her head, which was sunk in the ground. Mr. Taggert was sent for, who gave her every possible assistance; she survived, bleeding, a very few minutes. She was a very fine young woman, just 22 years old, and took a most active part in the business of her parents, of whom she was the only child. She had dressed herself preparatory to the fatal event. An inquest was held; verdict, Lunacy."

--From The Gentleman's Magazine--

The woman who drowned herself by walking into the sea was a widow and that was almost all they said--how she died, who she was, and that she was a widow. The lack of details makes it all the more shocking. That's something no human-interest story could capture.

Kindred spirits, 1776 edition

For my part, if ever I stand forth and sing the song of eulogy to great men, it shall be not because they occupy their station, but because they deserve it.

--From A Fragment on Government--

Sometimes you just have to agree completely with what someone else says.