Adapted from:
MEDICAL TERMS FOR GENEALOGISTS
by Susan Farrell Werle
for The Genealogical Helper, July – Aug 1988, p. 11-12
Ague: fever
Air-swellings: tympanites; air or gas in the intestines
Anchylosis: stiff joint
Anidrosis: too little perspiration
Anthrax: a carbuncle or boil which is larger and more painful than a boil
Apoplexy: stroke
Arachnitis: inflammation of the arachnoid and pia mater, which are membranes in the brain
Ascites: dropsy of the belly: a collection of water in the stomach
Barber’s Itch: ring-worm of the beard
Bilious Colic: tortuous pain in the belly
Bright’s Disease or Dysentery: Inflammation of the large bowels; commonly known as colitis
Bronchorrhea: a bronchial flu
Brown Tail Rash: an irritating, itching rash on the skin caused by small shedded hairs of the gypsy moth (or its caterpillar) carried by the wind and lodging in the pores of the skin
(The) Blue Disease: a blue tinge over the whole body; commonly known as cyanosis; body warmth is reduced, hampering breathing; usually fatal
Brain Fever: intense headache; fever, vertigo, intolerance to light or sound
Bronze John: see yellow fever
Chilbains: a painful sore or swelling on the foot or hand caused by exposure to the cold
Child-Bed Fever: puerperaI fever: septicaemia: blood poisoning during pregnancy
Clap: gonorrhea
Consumption:tubercu1osis of the lungs
Costiveness: constipation
Crusted Tetter: impetigo
Devonshire Colic: see Painter’s colic
Dropsy: anasarca or edema; a collection of water in a large cavity
Dropsy of the Brain: chronic hydrocephalus; an abnormal increase of fluid in the brain
Dry Belly-Ache: see Painter’s Colic
Egyptian Chlorosis: hookworm
False Measles: see Rose Rash
Flatulent Colic: see Wind Colic
Fits: convulsions
Green Sickness: Chlorosis; a green tinge to the skin of a young girl in puberty.
Infantile Debility: see marasmus
Infantile Spinal Paralysis: polio
Idrosis: greatly increased perspiration
King’s Evil: scrofula, or swelling of the neck glands; tuberculosis of the lymphatic glands
Le Grippe: form of influenza
Lead Palsy: a sequel to Painter’s colic; muscles of the forearm are palsied from lead in the body
Lumbago: rheumatic pain in the back
Lung Fever: pneumonia
Marasmus; infantile debility; condition wherein a child is unable to absorb nutrition from food
Milk Crust: small red, itchy pimples on the face or scalp of infants or children which burst and exude a sticky fluid forming a yellow crust
Milk Leg: phlebitis of inflammation in the leg beginning two to seven weeks after giving birth
Milk Sickness; also known as trembles; a disease contracted by eating a plant which grows in level, heavily-timbered, wet oak-lard (mainly in the West) or by eating meat wherein the animal has grazed upon such plants; Symptoms: nausea, vomiting, general debility, peculiar odor to the breath
Mother’s Marks: dilation of minute blood-vessels, varying in size, the smallest being the “Spider mark”
Mortification; complete death of a part of the body changing it to a black, stinking Mass
Osmicorosis: perspiration with a peculiar smell
Painter’s Colic: also known as Devonshire colic or dry bellyache; a form of colic experienced with slow lead poisoning
Palsy: paralysis to a body part
Pellagra: a disease caused by eating spoiled maize; symptoms begin with vomiting and diarrhea, followed by a swollen and sore tongue, and red ulcerated mouth, rash on the body, and body sores
Pessary: a device worn in the vagina for birth control or to give support to a displaced uterus
Phisic: medicine
Philes: Hemorrhoids
Pleurisy: inflammation and mucus in the lungs
Pox: syphilis
Purple Disease: pupura hemorrhagica; a rash of spots on the body, small, round and bright red, which changes to a purple color or dark-red spots in irregular, livid patches
Putrid Fever: see Typhus Fever
Pyemia: a form of blood poisoning from pus in the blood carried to various parts of the body
Rose-Rash: “false measles” or rosenia
Rheumatism: inflammation of the joints
Saint Vitus’s Dance: chorea; nervous disorder which creates involuntary muscular contractions
Sciatica: painful condition in the hip and / or thigh
Scrofula: see King’s Evil
Self-Pollution: masturbation
Ship Fever: see Typhus Fever
Spotted Fever: Cerebro-Spinal Meningitisi
St. Anthony’s Fire: erysipelas; infectious disease with inflammation of the skin and fever
Summer Complaint of Infants; cholera in infants
Typhus Fever: also known as Putrid Fever or Ship Fever-, contagious disease transmitted to man by the bite of fleas, lice, etc.
Uremia: blood in the urine
Water-Brash: pyrosis; similar to heartburn; belching of a thin, watery fluid
Wind Colic: also known as interalgia or flatulent colic; distressing pain in the bowels
Wool Sorter’s Disease: see Anthrax
Yellow Jack or Yellow Fever: also known as Bronze John; infectious tropical disease transmitted by a yellow fever mosquito