Often in genealogy as you do your research you encounter an archaic medical term used for the cause of death, or perhaps in a journal or family correspondence. This list is intended to aid with interpreting those terms.
|
Disease |
Description |
|
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 |
|
Atrophy |
Wasting away or diminishing in size. |
|
Bad Blood |
Syphilis |
|
Bilious fever |
Typhoid, malaria, hepatitis or elevated temperature and bile emesis |
|
Biliousness |
Jaundice associated with liver disease |
|
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 throat |
Diphtheria (Seen on death certificates) |
|
Blood poisoning |
Bacterial infection; septicemia |
|
Bloody flux |
Bloody stools |
|
Bloody sweat |
Sweating sickness |
|
Bone shave |
Sciatica |
|
Brain fever |
Meningitis |
|
Breakbone |
Dengue fever |
|
Bright's disease |
Chronic inflammatory disease of kidneys |
|
Bronze John |
Yellow fever |
|
Bule |
Boil, tumor or swelling |
|
Cachexy |
Malnutrition |
|
Cacogastric |
Upset stomach |
|
Cacospysy |
Irregular pulse |
|
Caduceus |
Subject to falling sickness or epilepsy |
|
Camp fever |
Typhus; aka Camp diarrhea |
|
Canine madness |
Rabies, hydrophobia |
|
Canker |
Ulceration of mouth or lips or herpes simplex |
|
Catalepsy |
Seizures / trances |
|
Catarrhal |
Nose and throat discharge from cold or allergy |
|
Cerebritis |
Inflammation of cerebrum or lead poisoning |
|
Chilblain |
Swelling of extremities caused by exposure to cold |
|
Child bed fever |
Infection following birth of a child |
|
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 |
|
Cholecystitus |
Inflammation of the gall bladder |
|
Cholelithiasis |
Gall stones |
|
Chorea |
Disease characterized by convulsions, contortions and dancing |
|
Cold plague |
Ague which is characterized by chills |
|
Colic |
An abdominal pain and cramping |
|
Congestive chills |
Malaria |
|
Consumption |
Tuberculosis |
|
Congestion |
Any collection of fluid in an organ, like the lungs |
|
Congestive chills |
Malaria with diarrhea |
|
Congestive fever |
Malaria |
|
Corruption |
Infection |
|
Coryza |
A cold |
|
Costiveness |
Constipation |
|
Cramp colic |
Appendicitis |
|
Crop sickness |
Overextended stomach |
|
Croup |
Laryngitis, diphtheria, or strep throat |
|
Cyanosis |
Dark skin color from lack of oxygen in blood |
|
Cynanche |
Diseases of throat |
|
Cystitis |
Inflammation of the bladder |
|
Day fever |
Fever lasting one day; sweating sickness |
|
Debility |
Lack of movement or staying in bed |
|
Decrepitude |
Feebleness due to old age |
|
Delirium tremens |
Hallucinations due to alcoholism |
|
Dengue |
Infectious fever endemic to East Africa |
|
Dentition |
Cutting of teeth |
|
Deplumation |
Tumor of the eyelids which causes hair loss |
|
Diary fever |
A fever that lasts one day |
|
Diptheria |
Contagious disease of the throat |
|
Distemper |
Usually animal disease with malaise, discharge from nose and throat, anorexia |
|
Dock fever |
Yellow fever |
|
Dropsy |
Edema (swelling), often caused by kidney or heart disease |
|
Dropsy of the Brain |
Encephalitis |
|
Dry Bellyache |
Lead poisoning |
|
Dyscrasy |
An abnormal body condition |
|
Dysentery |
Inflammation of colon with frequent passage of mucous and blood |
|
Dysorexy |
Reduced appetite |
|
Dyspepsia |
Indigestion and heartburn. Heart attack symptoms |
|
Dysury |
Difficulty in urination |
|
Eclampsy |
Symptoms of epilepsy, convulsions during labor |
|
Ecstasy |
A form of catalepsy characterized by loss of reason |
|
Edema |
Nephrosis; swelling of tissues |
|
Edema of lungs |
Congestive heart failure, a form of dropsy |
|
Eel thing |
Erysipelas |
|
Elephantiasis |
A form of leprosy |
|
Encephalitis |
Swelling of brain; aka sleeping sickness |
|
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 and bulbous lesions |
|
Extravasted blood |
Rupture of a blood vessel |
|
Falling sickness |
Epilepsy |
|
Fatty Liver |
Cirrhosis of liver |
|
Fits |
Sudden attack or seizure of muscle activity |
|
Flux |
An excessive flow or discharge of fluid like hemorrhage or diarrhea |
|
Flux of humour |
Circulation |
|
French pox |
Syphilis |
|
Gathering |
A collection of pus |
|
Glandular fever |
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 |
|
Heart sickness |
Condition caused by loss of salt from body |
|
Heat stroke |
Body temperature elevates because of surrounding environment temperature and body does not perspire to reduce temperature. Coma and death result if not reversed. |
|
Hectical complaint |
Recurrent fever |
|
Hematemesis |
Vomiting blood |
|
Hematuria |
Bloody urine |
|
Hemiplegy |
Paralysis of one side of body |
|
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 |
|
Infantile paralysis |
Polio |
|
Intestinal colic |
Abdominal pain due to improper diet |
|
Jail fever |
Typhus |
|
Jaundice |
Condition caused by blockage of intestines |
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