Lincoln embalming

[Dawn E Foster]

Wasn't there speculation that the Bronte sisters died because of their water being contaminated by runoff from the graveyard of their father's church?

[BettyO]

Sounds logical - very logical. But I believe that the entire family was affected with TB - at least Emily died of it as did their mother.....

[Eva Elisabeth]

The Brontë's mother died from cancer, but very soon after moving to Haworth. The sisters allegedly died from TB, also Branwell, who had already been weakened by the excessive abuse of alcohol. Please, don't miss going to Haworth if you ever get the chance! No time seems to have passed since the Brontë era and the landscape is magnificant. The same goes for Scotland, it's mystic, somewhat beyond space and time. Everydays inconveniences lack importance there. I could imagine superstitious-minded Mary derived a great deal of comfort and peace of mind there.

[Linda Anderson]

There are differing opinions on the cause of Charlotte's death in March 1855, nine months after her marriage to Arthur Bell Nichols, Mr. Bronte's curate.

"Her death certificate gives the cause of death as phthisis, but many biographers[who?] suggest she may have died from dehydration and malnourishment, caused by excessive vomiting from severe morning sickness or hyperemesis gravidarum."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlotte_Bront%C3%AB

But Lyndall Gordon in Charlotte Bronte: A Passionate Life, suggests that Charlotte may have caught a "digestive-tract infection, possibly typhoid," from Tabby, the family servant. Tabby died in February 1855.

The Babbage Report gives a detailed account of the terrible sanitary conditions in Haworth in 1850.

http://www.kdfhs.org.uk/index.php?option...Itemid=102