| Four people died of this in London in 1745, compared to 2 choak'd with fat, 135 from Colick, Gripes, and Twisting of the Guts, 22 from imposthume, 11 from grief, 5 from surfeit, 23 from evil, 6 from ague, one from vapours, 5 from lethargy, and 13 from worms.
Do you know what it means? I don't. Paul Smith doesn't, and he has a web page for unidentified medical conditions of the past
That's worth visiting for other curiosities if you like this sort of thing, but for now here is commentary on rising of the lights:
In the past lights was a term for the lungs, so rising of the lights suggests choking or breathlessness. Lights is a current term in the UK for the lungs in restaurants
Messages from someone who has original accounts suggest that rising of the lights nearly always occurred in women who had recently given birth. So it could mean
I think that the second definition is more likely, but the person with access to the primary accounts favours the former
I have also had a message that suggests rising of the lights means croup
A number of genealogy sites also list it as a synonym for croup, but as they're all just copying each other I wouldn't rely on them for cross-evidence.
E1, expanded for E2 using www.paul_smith.doctors.org.uk/unsolved.htm
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