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Consumption was a biggie - we call it tuberculosis now. It was almost always fatal. Cholera was another one. They called it "the plague". Native Americans came down with smallpox or measles and died from it because they had no natural immunity at all. Indian agents purposefully gave them infected blankets. Women frequently died in childbirth. Things like malnutrition and anemia were not uncommon. Blood poisoning from a wound was easy to get and they didn't have penicillin. It was different back then. People often didn't live long enough to get cancer or a heart attack.

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17y ago

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