Diseases

Old Diseases

As you go through old records, you will see names for diseases or even causes of death that may not make sense to you. Many were based on the predominant symptom. These have been gleaned from a variety of sources, and there are many other lists out there. There are no modern equivalents of some; some are the exact same medical term now as then. I’ve included descriptions and comments for those that aren’t obvious from their modern names. If you know any Latin, some are quite obvious. In fact, modern Spanish still uses the Latin bases for most of these! There are no hard and fast times when one would have been used over another, although most folks would agree that many of these terms were still in use until the mid-20th century. Most of these are now treatable; many are prevented by vaccination. In alphabetical order…

• Ague: fever with chills (shaking chills) and then sweating. Often associated with malaria and the periodic episodes of fever and chills
• Apoplexy: stroke
• Blood poisoning: sepsis or septicemia. A bacterial infection carried in the blood stream.
• Camp fever: typhus, typhoid fever. Also called ship fever
• Congestive fever: malaria
• Consumption: tuberculosis, a wasting disease
• Croup: named for the barking cough, this is usually pertussis
• Dropsy: technically just “edema” (swelling of the legs), but really, it’s congestive heart failure (CHF)
• Falling sickness: epilepsy (seizures)
• French pox: syphilis. Sometimes known as Lues disease.
• Grippe: influenza, or a serious vital illness
• Lockjaw: tetanus. It’s literally what happens, the jaw muscles spasm and you can’t open your mouth
• Mortification: gangrene. Of note, gangrene can be “wet” or “dry” which changes the acute management.
• Quinsy: abscess of the tonsil (back of the throat)
• St. Vitus’ dance: chorea, one of several related neurologic diseases marked by involuntary spasms.
• The shakes: Parkinson’s disease