Griping in the guts

I came across this weekly report of deaths in London in 1665 during the 1665-6 Plague Year (recounted by Daniel Defoe in A Journal of the Plague Year).  It is fascinating at many levels.  The numbers, the proportions to one another, the relative prevalence or absence today, etc.  But notable are the headings encompassing diagnosable disease, vernacular descriptions of rare occurrences, and seeming confusion or overlap.  

Click to enlarge.

For example, cancer claimed only two of the 5,319 deaths that week.  Cancer tends to be an illness associated with age.  The low cancer count highlights the average age demographic shift from then till now.  Average life expectancy was in the twenties, and even adjusting for the prevalence of infant mortality, not much into the thirties.  Cancer was rare because old age was rare.  

Consumption took 174  people.  Consumption being tuberculosis.  Tuberculosis today is rare and manageable but can still be lethal.  

Then there are the mysteries.  Who dies from a Sore Leg and what exactly is that intended to convey?  Even more prevalent with 113 deaths, who dies from Teeth?  Presumably this is something related to gum infection, possibly involving sepsis?

Rising of the Lights which claimed 19 lives?  Rising of the lights was apparently a common description for obstructions of the trachea, larynx and lungs.  It might correspond to our modern description of croup.  

And what is Griping in the Guts which claimed 74 people?  There are a variety of other gut related ailments which it is apparently distinct from.  Separately, there are colic, flux, scowring, stopping of the stomach, wind and wormes.  With all these associated stomach ailments, what was Griping in the Guts?  

It seems as if it was dangerous gastrointestinal distress arising from bacterial infection such as e. coli.