CAUSES OF DEATH

Otto Bauer, Jr.
born July 28, 1887 in Newark, New Jersey
died December 23, 1888 in Newark, New Jersey - age 1 year, 6 months.

Father: Otto Bauer, Sr. (1861-1916)
Mother: Emma Kraus (1863-1889)

Cause of death: Convulsions

A convulsion is a medical condition where body muscles contract and relax rapidly and repeatedly, resulting in an uncontrolled shaking of the body. Because a convulsion is often a symptom of an epileptic seizure, the term convulsion is sometimes used as a synonym for seizure. However, not all epileptic seizures lead to convulsions, and not all convulsions are caused by epileptic seizures. Convulsions may also be referred to as "fits" in some instances.

In the 19th Century, children are generally said to be especially susceptible to fits, by which it is intended that a less degree of irritation suffices to induce convulsions in infancy than is required in later years. A fit can generally be taken as an indication that there is somewhere in the body an unnatural source of irritation. In the child this irritation is frequently occasioned by growth of a tooth through the gums, by the presence in the stomach of improper food which cannot be digested, by the distension of the bowels in constipation, and sometimes by the presence of worms in the lower bowel. Many of the diseases of infancy - scarlet-fever, measles, whooping-cough, meningitis among others - are not infrequently accompanied at some period of their course by convulsions. Then again, extreme emotional excitement, either of the child or of the nursing mother, may be followed immediately by convulsions.

In the case of little Otto, we will probably never know what caused the convulsions that led to his death.

LYNN'S FAMILY WEBPAGE