Old Time Diseases ...Submitted by Libby Preston.
| Have you
ever wondered what those old time diseases were? Anyone who has
done
genealogy research and obtained copies of death certificates has seen comments like Bloody Flux, chilblains, whooping cough, etc. Below is a listing of various old time diseases that may make reading that death certificate a little easier.
|
| Ablepsy | Blindness |
| Ague | Malarial Fever |
| American plague | Yellow Fever |
| Anasarca | Generalized massive edema |
| Aphonia | Laryngitis |
| Aphtha | The infant disease thrush |
| Apoplexy | Paralysis due to stroke |
| Asphycsia/Asphicsia | Cyanotic and lack of oxygen |
| Bad Blood | Syphilis |
| Bilious fever | Typhoid, malaria, hepatitis or elevated temperature and bile |
| emesis | |
| Black plague or death | Bubonic plague |
| Black fever | Acute infection with high temperature and dark red skin |
| lesions and high mortality rate | |
| Black pox | Black Small pox |
| Black vomit | Vomiting old black blood due to ulcers or Yellow Fever |
| Blackwater fever | Dark urine associated with high temperature |
| Bladder in the throat | Diphtheria |
| Bloody flux | Bloody stools |
| Bloody sweat | Sweating sickness |
| Bone shave | Sciatica |
| Bronze John | Yellow Fever |
| Bule | Boil, tumor or swelling |
| Cachexy | Malnutrition |
| Cacospysy | Irregular pulse |
| Caduceus | Subject to falling sickness or epilepsy |
| Camp fever | Typhus; aka Camp diarrhea |
| Canine madness | Rabies, hydrophobia |
| Cerebritis | Inflammation of cerebrum or lead poisoning |
| Chilblain | Swelling of extremities caused by exposure to cold |
| Chin cough | Whooping cough - |
| Chlorosis | Iron deficiency anemia |
| Cholera | Acute severe contagious diarrhea with intestinal lining |
| sloughing | |
| Cholera morbus | Characterized by nausea, vomiting, abdominal cramps, |
| elevated temperature, etc. Could be appendicitis | |
| Chorea | Disease characterized by convulsions, contortions and |
| dancing | |
| Cold plague | Ague which is characterized by chills |
| Congestive chills | Malaria |
| Consumption | Tuberculosis |
| Congestive chills | Malaria with diarrhea |
| Congestive fever | Malaria |
| Coryza | A cold |
| Costiveness | Constipation |
| Cramp colic | Appendicitis |
| Crop sickness | Overextended stomach |
| Cynanche | Throat Disease |
| Debility | Lack of movement or staying in bed |
| Decrepitude | Feebleness due to old age |
| Deplumation | Tumor of the eyelids which causes hair loss |
| Diary fever | A fever that lasts one day |
| Diphtheria | Contagious disease of the throat |
| Dock Fever | Yellow Fever |
| Dropsy | Edema (swelling), often caused by kidney or heart disease |
| Dry Bellyache | Lead poisoning |
| Dysentery | Inflammation of colon with frequent passage of mucous and |
| blood | |
| Dysorexy | Reduced appetite |
| Dysury | Difficulty in urination |
| Ecstasy | A form of catalepsy characterized by loss of reason |
| Eel thing | Erysipelas |
| Edema | Nephrosis; swelling of tissues & Edema of lungs is |
| Congestive heart failure, a form of dropsy | |
| Elephantiasis | A form of leprosy |
| Enteric fever | Typhoid Fever |
| Enterocolitis | Inflammation of the intestines |
| Enteritis | Inflations of the bowels |
| Epitaxis | Nose bleed |
| Erysipelas | Contagious skin disease, due to Streptococci with vesicular |
| & bulbous lesions | |
| Extravasted blood | Rupture of a blood vessel |
| Falling sickness | Epilepsy |
| Fits | Sudden attack or seizure of muscle activity |
| Flux | An excessive flow or discharge of fluid like hemorrhage or |
| diarrhea | |
| French pox | Syphilis |
| Gravel | Kidney or Gallstones |
| Great pox | Syphilis |
| Green fever or sickness | Anemia |
| Grippe | Influenza like symptoms |
| Grocer's itch | Skin disease caused by mites in sugar or flour |
| Heart sickness | Condition caused by loss of salt from body |
| Hectical complaint | Recurrent fever |
| Hip gout | Osteomylitis |
| Horrors | Delirium tremens |
| Hydrocephalus | Enlarged head, water on the brain |
| Hydropericardium | Heart dropsy |
| Hydrophobia | Rabies |
| Hydrothroax | Dropsy in chest |
| Hypertrophic | Enlargement of organ, like the heart |
| Impetigo | Contagious skin disease characterized by pustules |
| Inanition | Physical condition resulting from lack of food |
| Jail fever | Typhus |
| Jaundice | Condition caused by blockage of intestines |
| King's Evil | Tuberculosis of neck and lymph glands |
| Kruchhusten | Whooping cough |
| Lagrippe | Influenza |
| Lockjaw | Tetanus or infectious disease affecting the muscles of the |
| neck and jaw if untreated, it is fatal in 8 days | |
| Long sickness | Tuberculosis |
| Syphilis Lues disease or | Venereal disease |
| venera | |
| Lumbago | Back pain |
| Lung fever | Pneumonia |
| Lung sickness | Tuberculosis |
| Lying in | Time of delivery of infant |
| Malignant sore throat | Diphtheria |
| Marasmus | Progressive wasting away of body, like malnutrition |
| Membranous Croup | Diphtheria |
| Meningitis | Inflammation of brain or spinal cord |
| Metritis | Inflammation of uterus or purulent vaginal discharge |
| Miasma | Poisonous vapors thought to infect the air |
| Milk Fever, undulant fever | Disease from drinking contaminated milk |
| or brucellosis | |
| Milk leg | Post partum thrombophlebitis |
| Milk sickness | Disease caused by drinking milk from cows which had eaten |
| poisonous weeds | |
| Mormal | Gangrene |
| Morphew | Scurvy blisters on the body |
| Mortification | Gangrene of necrotic tissue |
| Myelitis | Inflammation of the spine |
| Myocarditis | Inflammation of heart muscles |
| Necrosis | Mortification of bones or tissue |
| Nephrosis | Kidney degeneration |
| Nephritis | Inflammation of kidneys |
| Nervous prostration | Extreme exhaustion from inability to control physical and |
| mental activities | |
| Pemphigus | Skin disease of watery blisters |
| Pericarditis | Inflammation of heart |
| Peripneumonia | Inflammation of lungs |
| Peritonotis | Inflammation of abdominal area |
| Petechial Fever | Fever characterized by skin spotting |
| Phthiriasis | Lice infestation |
| Plague | An acute febrile highly infectious disease with a high fatality |
| rate | |
| Pleurisy | Any pain in the chest area with each breath |
| Podagra | Gout |
| Polio Potter's Asthma | Fibroid Pthisis (Chronic wasting away or another name for |
| tuberculosis) | |
| Pott's Disease | Tuberculosis of the Spine |
| Puerperal Exhaustion | Death due to childbirth |
| Puerperal Fever | Elevated temperature after giving birth |
| Puking Fever | Milk Sickness |
| Putrid Fever | Diphtheria |
| Quinsy | Tonsillitis |
| Remitting Fever | Malaria |
| Rheumatism | Pain in the joints |
| Rose cold | Hay fever |
| Rottany Fever | A form of child's fever |
| Rubeola | German Measles |
| Sanguineous crust | Scab |
| Scarlatina or Scarlet Fever | A disease characterized by a red rash |
| Scarlet Rash | Roseola |
| Scirrhus | Cancerous tumors |
| Scotomy | Dizziness, nausea & dimness of sight |
| Scrivener's Palsy | Writer's cramp |
| Screws | Rheumatism |
| Scrofula | Tuberculosis of the neck lymph glands |
| Scrumpox | Skin disease or impetigo |
| Scurvy | Lack of vitamin C |
| Septicemia | Blood poisoning |
| Shakes | Delirium tremens (DT's) |
| Shaking | Chills or ague |
| Siriasis | Inflammation of the brain caused by sun exposure |
| Ship fever | Typhus |
| Sloes | Milk sickness |
| Smallpox | Contagious disease with fever & blisters |
| Softening of the brain | Stroke or hemorrhage in the brain resulting in softening of |
| the tissue in that area | |
| Sore throat distemper | Diphtheria or quinsy Spanish influenza |
| Spotted fever | Typhus or meningitis |
| Sprue | Tropical disease characterized by intestinal disorders and |
| sore throat | |
| St. Anthony's fire or | Named because the affected areas of the skin are bright red in |
| Erysipelas | appearance |
| St. Vitas or Viper's Dance | Involuntary rapid jerking movements that don't cease |
| Stomatitis | Inflammation of the mouth |
| Stranger's fever | Yellow Fever |
| Strangery | Rupture |
| Sudor anglicus | Sweating sickness (see below) |
| Summer complaint | Diarrhea, usually caused by spoiled milk |
| Swamp sickness | Malaria, typhoid or encephalitis |
| Sweating sickness | Infectious & fatal disease common to United Kingdom in the |
| 15th century | |
| Tussis Convulsiva | Whooping Cough |
| Typhus (Typhoid Fever) | Infectious fever characterized by high fever, headache & |
| dizziness | |
| Variola | Smallpox |
| White swelling | Tuberculosis of the bone |
| Winter fever | Pneumonia |
| Womb fever | Infection of the uterus |
| Worm fit | Convulsions associated with teething, worms, elevated |
| temperature or diarrhea | |
| Yellowjacket | Yellow fever |
Also see Kathy Hamilton's Floyd County, KY pages for a more extensive list: