h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Or does it?
>>It's not an illness, as such<<



?

MMF

Dying of fish? Nah...

Ooooohhhhhh! You minx, you!

MMF

Ok, I'll give you a hint - the first time the Americans used it on a death certificate was 1766, ten years before their little revolution. 1910 was the last time.

Trampled by buffalo ?

Not a violent death, either.

Was it some form of mis-diagnosis, say

Indian-fever ?

Might be getting closer, depending on how you mean that.

Yellow fever?

Malaria? Cholera?

I think we need to introduce a not-reading-the-backlog klaxon, as Ben suggested, if this persists

I'm thinking of something that was not recognised by medical science and was thus ascribed to something else.

still thinking...........

Similar, except that it's something which was recognised by medical science and ought to have been ascribed to something else

>>I think we need to introduce a not-reading-the-backlog klaxon<<

So that's two I've got then... Only two left by my guess!

Would it be something similar to shellshock?

MMF

I didn't say I was actually awarding them. You're safe for now

It's not shellshock, no. Much less violent. You can't officially die from it these days, though there's plenty of it around!

If it weren't for the 'there's plenty of it around' I would have gone for ...

Or, knowing that it's not medical, something I posted earlier, Lunacy.

So no further forward then.

MMF

An act of God?

or heartbreak?

mini

the pox

Consumption?

Oooh, mini has got it - close enough, anyway.

It was officially called "nostalgia", and was defined as "prolonged overwhelming melancholy" due to missing your home or loved ones.

31,987 people managed to die from it in the time it was an official cause of death.