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Medical Terms Thomas County GAGenWeb A Proud Part of GAGenWeb |
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Ablepsia | blindness |
Ague |
intermittent fever or chills |
Ambustio | burn |
Amputation, primary |
usually done in within the first 24 hours of original injury |
Amputation, secondary |
performed to improve the primary amputation |
Anodynes |
medication that help with pain |
Apoplexy |
stroke, or impairment from a brain hemorrhage |
Aphtha |
Thrush |
Army Itch | Scabies |
Asenthia | Weakness |
Bilious fever | Malaria or thyphoid |
Black Water Fever | Fever accompanied by dark colored urine |
Bright's disease | Kidney Disease |
Camp State or Fever |
symptoms which happened when troops were crowded together like fevers and diarrhea. |
Catalepsy |
seizures or trances |
Catarrhus |
mucus membrane inflammation |
Child Bed Fever |
infection after childbirth |
Chlorosis |
anemia |
Cholera |
infectious disease, including diarrhea, often leading to death |
Colica |
abdominal pain |
Consumption |
tuberculosis, or a general wasting away |
Coryza |
acute inflammation of nose and tonsils. |
Cow Pox | a virus similar to smallpox. Caught from the udders of cows which have blisters, caught by touch, usually localized. Was used as a successful vaccination against smallpox. |
Crop Sickness | bloated stomach |
Crowd Poisonings | fevers and sickness when troops were crowded together |
Debility | lack of strength, a lasting symptom |
Dementia |
insanity, many different levels |
Dengue |
fever from a mosquito bite |
Dropsy |
congestive heart failure |
Dysentery |
inflammation of intestines, caused by bacteria or parasites |
Dyspepsia |
stomach discomfort after meals |
Dyspenia |
trouble breathing |
Erysipelas |
contagious skin disease, redness and swelling of affected areas |
Falling Sickness |
epilepsy |
Flux |
diarrhea |
Glanders |
an infectious disease that can start with horses, donkeys and mules. Attacks the respiratory system. |
Goiter | swelling of lymph gland |
Grippe | influenza, flu |
Hemophthis | spitting up blood |
Impetigo | contagious skin disease |
Inflammatory Rheumatism | rheumatic fever |
Lockjaw | tetanus |
Malaria | transmitted by mosquitos, chills, fever and sweating can be recurrent |
Marasmus |
infant wasting away from causes unknown |
Miasma |
poisonous vapors thought to have infected the air. |
Milk Leg |
swelling of legs of women who recently gave birth |
Milk sickness | sickness from the ingestion of milk, milk products or meat products from animals having the "trembles" |
Morphew | scurvy blisters |
mortification | death |
osteomylitis | inflammation of the bone or surgical fever |
Neurasthenia | neurosis caused by worry, and causing indigestion, etc. |
Parotitis | Mumps |
Peritonitis | frequently the cause of death in abdominal wounds |
Pleurisy | lung inflammation |
Pneumonia | inflammation of the lungs |
Padogra | gout |
Pox | syphilis |
Prostration | extreme exhaustion |
Pyemia | pus in blood, used to be for all types of blood poisoning, usually fatal |
Pyrosis | heartburn |
Quinsy | abscess of the tonsils |
Rheumatism | inflammation of the joints, muscles |
Rubella | measles |
Scarlatina | scarlet fever |
scrofula | tuberculosis of the lymph nodes |
Scurvey | Vitamin C deficiency disease. In civil war they tried to prevent this by having soldiers eat desiccated vegetables as a ration. |
Sleeping Sickness | encephalitis |
sub-Laxatio | non complete dislocation |
Suppuration | formation of pus, thought to be a good thing in the 1860's |
Trench Mouth | sores or ulcers in the mouth at the gum line |
Variola | smallpox |
Venesection | bleeding |
Vulnus Incisim | incisional wound |
Vulnus Punctum | puncture wound |
Vulnus Sclopeticum | gunshot wound |
winter fever | pneumonia |
Yellow Fever | Virus, was thought to have been brought by air instead of mosquitos |
Sources:
http://ehistory.osu.edu/uscw/features/medicine/cwsurgeon/commonterms.cfm
http://freepages.computers.rootsweb.com/~grundyconnections/medterminolgy.html
“Civil War Medicine” by C Keith Wilbur MD, 1998
This page was last updated on -07/02/2017
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