POLAND-ROOTS-L Archives

From: "wfhoffman" <>
Subject: [POLAND] "Pitocie"
Date: Mon, 2 Feb 2004 11:03:37 -0600

Greetings!

A few days ago Ar Lynn <> posted this note:

> On the death record as cause of death it lists PYTOCIE.
> I have seen the letters I and Y used interchangably at times
> so I will presume it is PITOCIE. In Hoffman's book Vol.
> I Polish it is translated as Phlegm, Rheum. So can anyone
> tell me exactly what that is? The cert is that for a 30 yr old
> woman.

I saw at least a couple of replies discussing what "phlegm, rheum" might
signify as a cause of death. Of course, it's tricky relying too much on a
"cause of death" in these old records because there was usually no input
from a person with medical training. Often the "cause of death" will simply
be the first symptom that appeared, or the symptom that happened to make the
biggest impression on the witnesses. So this information can be quite
misleading; but if it's the best you have to work with, well, that's
that....

But as for the word _pytocie_ or _pitocie_, something jogged my memory and I
decided to take another look at that.

When Jonathan Shea and I compiled our book, we relied a lot on information
in Rosemary Chorzempa's booklet _Morbus_. I knew she'd done quite a bit of
research and believed she had a pretty fair idea what she was talking about.
She gives _pitoce, pythocie, pythochij_ as "phlegm, rheum (from Latin
_pituita_)." A Latin dictionary I own shows _pituita_ as "phlegm, rheum;
catarrh; cold in the head." So that all seemed fairly consistent, so that's
how we listed it (although it appears _pytocie_ is the standard spelling,
not _pitocie_ -- that's my mistake!).

Recently, however, I happened to run across mention of _pytocie_ in two
other sources -- in Wlodzimierz Dworzaczek's _Genealogia_, the first
Polish-language book on genealogy as an actual scientific discipline, and
also in a Polish-language article by Dr. Malgorzata J. M. Nowaczyk
discussing infectious diseases that afflicted our ancestors, available here:

http://www.genpol.com/Poradnik-GenPol-art48.html

Dworzaczek mentions "_pytocie_, czyli krosty, a wiec miedzy innymi i
szkalatyn czy ospa -- "_pytocie_, or pustules, and thus, among other things,
scarlet fever or smallpox." Dr. Nowaczyk refers to "Wirusowe choroby z
wysypka, spotykane u malych dzieci wystepujace pod nazwa "pytocie" lub
"fryzle" bywaly zapisywane po polsku lub po lacinie (_papulis, papula_)." --
"Viral illnesses with skin outbreaks encountered among small children and
appearing under the name of _pytocie_ or _fryzle_ were entered in Polish or
in Latin (_papulis, papula_)."

>From what Dworzaczek and Nowaczyk say, therefore, _pytocie_ usually referred
to an illness characterized by an outbreak of pustules, not phlegm or rheum.
And obviously this is a pretty significant difference! In one case we'd be
talking about an ancestor who died from complications of a cold such as
pneumonia; in the other we're talking about scarlet fever or smallpox.

I'm not saying Chorzempa was wrong. Her research may have convinced her that
references to this illness usually indicated that phlegm, rheum, catarrh was
the right translation. But she's a sensible lady, and has no illusions of
infallibility. Dworzaczek is highly respected among Polish scholars; and Dr.
Nowaczyk looks like she has impressive credentials. Since they agree on what
the term means, I'm going to suggest to Jonathan that we should change this
in future editions of our book.

Sorry for the long note, but if there's one thing Jonathan and I don't ever
want to do, it's mislead researchers with and information. Since the subject
had come up here, I thought it advisable to speak up. I hope it helps, and
wish all of you the best of luck with your research.

Fred (William F.) Hoffman
Co-author, _In Their Words ... Volume 1: Polish_

This thread:

• [POLAND] "Pitocie" by "wfhoffman" <>