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From: "Jeanne Surber" <>
Subject: Inanition
Date: Fri, 28 Oct 2005 08:37:53 -0700
References: <20051028114930.91467.qmail@web52308.mail.yahoo.com>


Margaret (and others) wrote "word might be inanition - it seems to relate to
starvation."

I found this listing for one person on a page of death listings:
"Cause of death: inanition, due to chronic digestive disorders."

Inanition sure sounds like the right word. I can see how a handwritten
"i-n" could be easily interpreted as an "m." I'd say the mystery is solved.

I found both words ("inanition" and "manition") in the same website of
causes of death for a large group of people. It appeared that more than one
typist had worked on different segments of the information, and the word was
typed according to how it looked to them.

And since it was used for other things that caused people to not eat, such
as digestive problems, I can see how it might be used in connection with TB
especially if the family didn't care to have "tuberculosis" listed as the
cause of death. I remember my mother whispering about somebody who "had TB
and was sent away to the sanitorium" and there seemed to be a stigma
attached to it at one time.

Jeanne S.




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