.....that you didn't live in the day of unknown cures and quack medicine. Although I don't do much research anymore with regards to New England history, I read alot! Yes, I am one of the most boring people you will meet. I only read nonfiction, and nonfiction on New England subjects. I find this a great way to relax and learn at the same time. However, there are still times that I am stumped when a particular word pops up that has me taking precious reading time to find out what the heck it means. This is especially true when it comes to researching, or reading about, deaths, maladies and everyday colonial lives of us Yankees.
So what do I do so that others won't have the same problem? Below find a most complete list of maladies, sicknesses and health problems that plagued our ancestors for centuries. Now remember that not only were our forefathers oblivious to many dieseases and ailments, but their knowledge of how to treat these afflictions were even sparcer.
Many of these tewrms were still around at the beginning of the 20th century, such as impetigo(which this author had to be humiliated with as a young teen).
Ablepsy – Generally meant blindness
Ague – A fever most of the time
Anasarca – Edema of substantive size
Aphonia – Laryngitis
Aphtha – What we now know as the thrush
Apoplexy – Partial or overall paralysis due to stroke
Asphycsia/Asphicsia – Oxygen depletion for any reason
Atrophy – Muscle wasting away or diminishing in size.
Bad Blood – A sexual disease such as syphilis
Bilious fever – Typhoid, malaria, hepatitis or elevated temperature
Biliousness –Usually jaundice from the effects of liver disease
Black vomit – Vomiting old black blood, usually due to ulcers due to ulcers
Bladder in throat – Diphtheria
Blood poisoning – Bacterial infection; sepsus
Bloody flux – Blood in the stool
Brain fever – Meningitis
Bright’s disease – Chronic inflammatory disease of kidneys
Bule – Boil, tumor or swelling
Cachexy – Suffering from malnutrition
Cacogastric – Just an upset stomach
Cacospysy – Fast, slow or irregular pulse
Caduceus – Epilepsy or "the falling sickness"
Canine madness – Rabies
Canker – A mouth ulcer or herpes
Catalepsy – a seizure
Catarrhal/Catarrh – Simply a nose and/or throat phlem from a cold or allergy
Cerebritis – Lead poising mostly, or brain Inflammation
Chilblain – Swelling of extremities caused by exposure to cold
Child bed fever – Mother's infection following birth of a child
Chin cough – Whooping cough
Chlorosis – Anemia
Cholera – Severe, contagious diarrhea
Cholera morbus – Nausea, vomiting, cramps, fever generally related to appendicitis
Cholecystitus – Inflammation of the gall bladder
Cholelithiasis – Gall stones
Chorea – Disease characterized by convulsions, contortions and dancing
Colic – Abdominal pain and cramping
Consumption – Tuberculosis
Corruption – Infection
Coryza – A simple cold
Costiveness – Constipation
Cramp colic – Appendicitis
Croup – Laryngitis, diphtheria, or strep throat
Cynanche – Throat diseases
Cystitis – Bladder Inflammation
Getting a rabies vaccination in the 19th century
Courtesy of historyofvacines.org
Day fever(Diary Fever) – A fever lasting but one day
Debility – Immobile while in bed
Decrepitude – Old age feebleness
Delirium tremens – Alcoholic hallucinations
Dentition – Cutting teeth, usually as an infant
Diptheria – Contagious disease of the throat
Distemper – Usually an animal disease
Dropsy – Swelling caused by kidney or heart disease
Dropsy of the Brain – Encephalitis
Dry Bellyache – Lead poisoning
Dyscrasy – Anything abnormal about the body
Dysentery – Colon inflammation with passage of mucous and/or blood
Dysorexy – Loss of appetite
Dyspepsia – Indigestion, heartburn or any sign of a heart attack
Dysury – Difficulty urinating
Eclampsy – Usually symptoms of epilepsy or labor convulsions
Edema of lungs – Congestive heart failure, a form of dropsy
Encephalitis – Sleeping sickness because of brain inflammation
Enterocolitis – Intestinal inflammation
Enteritis – Bowel inflammation
Epitaxis – A simple nose bleed
Extravasted blood – Blood vessel rupture
Falling sickness – Epilepsy
Fatty Liver – Cirrhosis of the liver
Flux – Excessive diarrhea or Hemorrhaging
Flux of "humour" – Circulatory problems
French pox – Syphilis
Gathering – Puss accumulation
Glandular fever – The kissing disease, mononucleosis
Great pox – Syphilis
Green fever / sickness – Anemia
Grippe/grip – Influenza-like symptoms
Grocer’s itch – Skin disease caused by mites in sugar or flour barrels
Heart sickness – Deprivation of salt in the body
Hectical complaint –A recurring fever
Hematemesis – Vomiting blood
Hematuria – Bloody urine
Hemiplegy – Paralysis on just one side of the body
Horrors – Delirium tremors or actions
Hydrocephalus – Water on the brain
Hydrothroax – Dropsy in the chest
Hypertrophic – Organ enlargement such as the liver or heart
courtesy of Wikimedia.com
Female Hysteria - Usually hallucinations caused by prolonged fever or mental illness
Impetigo – Contagious skin disease characterized by pustules
Inanition – Result of not eating enough
Infantile paralysis – Polio
Intestinal colic – Abdominal pain due to an improper diet
King’s evil – Tuberculosis of neck and lymph glands
Kruchhusten – Otherwise known as the whooping cough
Lagrippe – Influenza
Lockjaw – Tetanus affecting the muscles of the neck and jaw. Untreated, it was and is fatal
Long sickness – Tuberculosis
Lues disease – Syphilis
Lues venera – Venereal disease
Lumbago – Back pain
Lung fever – Pneumonia
Lung sickness – Tuberculosis
Lying in – When a child is expected to be born
Membranous Croup – Diphtheria
Miasma – Poisonous vapors thought to infect the air
Milk(Undulant) fever/Brucellosis – Disease from drinking contaminated milk
Milk leg – Post partum thrombophlebitis
Milk sickness – Disease from milk of cattle that had eaten poisonous grass
Mormal – Gangrene
Morphew – Blisters on the body from scurvy
Myelitis – Inflammation of the spine
Myocarditis – Inflammation of the muscles of the heart
Nephrosis – A degenerative kidney
Nepritis – Kidney inflammation
A depiction of conditions at Bellevue Hospital in the 19th century
Nervous prostration – Extreme and paralyzing exhaustion
Neuralgia in the Head – Headache or head discomfort
Nostalgia – Homesick
Palsy – Paralysis or uncontrolled movement of muscles. Commonly found on death certificates.
Paroxysm – Convulsions
Pemphigus – Skin disease of watery blisters
Pericarditis – Heart inflammation
Peripneumonia – Lung inflammation
Peritonotis – Abdominal inflammation
Petechial Fever – Fever with spotting of the skin
Puerperal exhaustion – Death due to child birth
Phthiriasis – Lice infestation
Phthisis – Chronic wasting away or tuberculosis
Pleurisy – Breathing pain in the chest
Courtesy of missouri.edu
Podagra – Gout
Pott’s disease – Tuberculosis of the spine
Puerperal exhaustion – Death due to childbirth
Puerperal fever – Elevated temperature after giving birth to an infant
Puking fever – Milk sickness
Putrid fever – Diphtheria.
Quinsy – Tonsillitis.
Rickets – Disease of skeletal system
Rose cold – Hay fever or allergies
Sanguineous crust – A scab
Sciatica – Rheumatism of the hips
Scirrhus – Cancerous tumors
Scotomy – Dizziness, nausea and dimness of sight
Scrivener’s palsy – Writer’s cramp
Screws – Rheumatism
Scrumpox – Skin disease, impetigo
Scurvy – Lack of vitamin C
Septicemia – Blood poisoning
Shakes – Delirium tremens
Ship fever – Typhus
Siriasis – Brain inflammation due to overexposure of the sun
Sloes – Milk sickness
Small pox – Contagious disease with fever and blisters
Softening of brain – Result of stroke or hemorrhage in the brain
Sore throat distemper – Diphtheria or quinsy
Spanish influenza – Epidemic influenza
Stomatitis – Inflammation of the mouth
Strangery – A rupture
Sudor anglicus – Sweating sickness
Summer complaint – Infant diarrhea from drinking spoiled
Toxemia of pregnancy – Eclampsia
Trench mouth – Painful ulcers found on the gum line, caused by poor nutrition, hygiene
Tussis convulsiva – Whooping cough
Variola – Smallpox
Venesection – Bleeding
Water on brain – Enlarged head
Winter fever – Pneumonia
Womb fever – Uterus infection.
Worm fit – Convulsions commonly with teething, worms, elevated temperature or diarrhea
Courtesy of
historyofalcoholanddrugs.typepad.com
So what do I do so that others won't have the same problem? Below find a most complete list of maladies, sicknesses and health problems that plagued our ancestors for centuries. Now remember that not only were our forefathers oblivious to many dieseases and ailments, but their knowledge of how to treat these afflictions were even sparcer.
Many of these tewrms were still around at the beginning of the 20th century, such as impetigo(which this author had to be humiliated with as a young teen).
Ablepsy – Generally meant blindness
Ague – A fever most of the time
Anasarca – Edema of substantive size
Aphonia – Laryngitis
Aphtha – What we now know as the thrush
Courtesy of virgina.edu
Apoplexy – Partial or overall paralysis due to stroke
Asphycsia/Asphicsia – Oxygen depletion for any reason
Atrophy – Muscle wasting away or diminishing in size.
Bad Blood – A sexual disease such as syphilis
Bilious fever – Typhoid, malaria, hepatitis or elevated temperature
Biliousness –Usually jaundice from the effects of liver disease
Black vomit – Vomiting old black blood, usually due to ulcers due to ulcers
Bladder in throat – Diphtheria
Blood poisoning – Bacterial infection; sepsus
Bloody flux – Blood in the stool
Brain fever – Meningitis
Bright’s disease – Chronic inflammatory disease of kidneys
Bule – Boil, tumor or swelling
Cachexy – Suffering from malnutrition
Cacogastric – Just an upset stomach
Cacospysy – Fast, slow or irregular pulse
Caduceus – Epilepsy or "the falling sickness"
Canine madness – Rabies
Canker – A mouth ulcer or herpes
Catalepsy – a seizure
Catarrhal/Catarrh – Simply a nose and/or throat phlem from a cold or allergy
Cerebritis – Lead poising mostly, or brain Inflammation
Chilblain – Swelling of extremities caused by exposure to cold
Child bed fever – Mother's infection following birth of a child
Chin cough – Whooping cough
Chlorosis – Anemia
Cholera – Severe, contagious diarrhea
Cholera morbus – Nausea, vomiting, cramps, fever generally related to appendicitis
Cholecystitus – Inflammation of the gall bladder
Cholelithiasis – Gall stones
Chorea – Disease characterized by convulsions, contortions and dancing
Colic – Abdominal pain and cramping
Consumption – Tuberculosis
Corruption – Infection
Coryza – A simple cold
Costiveness – Constipation
Cramp colic – Appendicitis
Croup – Laryngitis, diphtheria, or strep throat
Cynanche – Throat diseases
Cystitis – Bladder Inflammation
Courtesy of historyofvacines.org
Day fever(Diary Fever) – A fever lasting but one day
Debility – Immobile while in bed
Decrepitude – Old age feebleness
Delirium tremens – Alcoholic hallucinations
Dentition – Cutting teeth, usually as an infant
Diptheria – Contagious disease of the throat
Distemper – Usually an animal disease
Dropsy – Swelling caused by kidney or heart disease
Dropsy of the Brain – Encephalitis
Dry Bellyache – Lead poisoning
Dyscrasy – Anything abnormal about the body
Dysentery – Colon inflammation with passage of mucous and/or blood
Dysorexy – Loss of appetite
Dyspepsia – Indigestion, heartburn or any sign of a heart attack
Dysury – Difficulty urinating
Eclampsy – Usually symptoms of epilepsy or labor convulsions
Edema of lungs – Congestive heart failure, a form of dropsy
Encephalitis – Sleeping sickness because of brain inflammation
Enterocolitis – Intestinal inflammation
Enteritis – Bowel inflammation
Epitaxis – A simple nose bleed
Extravasted blood – Blood vessel rupture
Falling sickness – Epilepsy
Fatty Liver – Cirrhosis of the liver
Flux – Excessive diarrhea or Hemorrhaging
Flux of "humour" – Circulatory problems
French pox – Syphilis
Gathering – Puss accumulation
Courtesy of virginia.edu
Glandular fever – The kissing disease, mononucleosis
Great pox – Syphilis
Green fever / sickness – Anemia
Grippe/grip – Influenza-like symptoms
Grocer’s itch – Skin disease caused by mites in sugar or flour barrels
Heart sickness – Deprivation of salt in the body
Hectical complaint –A recurring fever
Hematemesis – Vomiting blood
Hematuria – Bloody urine
Hemiplegy – Paralysis on just one side of the body
Horrors – Delirium tremors or actions
Hydrocephalus – Water on the brain
Hydrothroax – Dropsy in the chest
Hypertrophic – Organ enlargement such as the liver or heart
Female Hysteria - Usually hallucinations caused by prolonged fever or mental illness
Impetigo – Contagious skin disease characterized by pustules
Inanition – Result of not eating enough
Infantile paralysis – Polio
Intestinal colic – Abdominal pain due to an improper diet
King’s evil – Tuberculosis of neck and lymph glands
Kruchhusten – Otherwise known as the whooping cough
Lagrippe – Influenza
Lockjaw – Tetanus affecting the muscles of the neck and jaw. Untreated, it was and is fatal
Long sickness – Tuberculosis
Lues disease – Syphilis
Lues venera – Venereal disease
Lumbago – Back pain
Lung fever – Pneumonia
Lung sickness – Tuberculosis
Lying in – When a child is expected to be born
Membranous Croup – Diphtheria
Miasma – Poisonous vapors thought to infect the air
Milk(Undulant) fever/Brucellosis – Disease from drinking contaminated milk
Milk leg – Post partum thrombophlebitis
Milk sickness – Disease from milk of cattle that had eaten poisonous grass
Mormal – Gangrene
Morphew – Blisters on the body from scurvy
Myelitis – Inflammation of the spine
Myocarditis – Inflammation of the muscles of the heart
Nephrosis – A degenerative kidney
Nepritis – Kidney inflammation
Nervous prostration – Extreme and paralyzing exhaustion
Neuralgia in the Head – Headache or head discomfort
Nostalgia – Homesick
Palsy – Paralysis or uncontrolled movement of muscles. Commonly found on death certificates.
Paroxysm – Convulsions
Pemphigus – Skin disease of watery blisters
Pericarditis – Heart inflammation
Peripneumonia – Lung inflammation
Peritonotis – Abdominal inflammation
Petechial Fever – Fever with spotting of the skin
Puerperal exhaustion – Death due to child birth
Phthiriasis – Lice infestation
Phthisis – Chronic wasting away or tuberculosis
Pleurisy – Breathing pain in the chest
Podagra – Gout
Pott’s disease – Tuberculosis of the spine
Puerperal exhaustion – Death due to childbirth
Puerperal fever – Elevated temperature after giving birth to an infant
Puking fever – Milk sickness
Putrid fever – Diphtheria.
Quinsy – Tonsillitis.
Rickets – Disease of skeletal system
Rose cold – Hay fever or allergies
Sanguineous crust – A scab
Sciatica – Rheumatism of the hips
Scirrhus – Cancerous tumors
Scotomy – Dizziness, nausea and dimness of sight
Scrivener’s palsy – Writer’s cramp
Screws – Rheumatism
Scrumpox – Skin disease, impetigo
Scurvy – Lack of vitamin C
Septicemia – Blood poisoning
Shakes – Delirium tremens
Ship fever – Typhus
Siriasis – Brain inflammation due to overexposure of the sun
Sloes – Milk sickness
Small pox – Contagious disease with fever and blisters
Softening of brain – Result of stroke or hemorrhage in the brain
Sore throat distemper – Diphtheria or quinsy
Spanish influenza – Epidemic influenza
Stomatitis – Inflammation of the mouth
Strangery – A rupture
Sudor anglicus – Sweating sickness
Summer complaint – Infant diarrhea from drinking spoiled
Toxemia of pregnancy – Eclampsia
Trench mouth – Painful ulcers found on the gum line, caused by poor nutrition, hygiene
Tussis convulsiva – Whooping cough
Variola – Smallpox
Venesection – Bleeding
Water on brain – Enlarged head
Winter fever – Pneumonia
Womb fever – Uterus infection.
Worm fit – Convulsions commonly with teething, worms, elevated temperature or diarrhea
Courtesy of
historyofalcoholanddrugs.typepad.com
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