OLD MEDICAL TERMS
A list of past health and illness terms and their definitions.
Prepared and submitted by Dan Burrows
Please click on the letters below to go to the terms
ABC
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
BACK TO THE TOP
DEF
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
BACK TO THE TOP
GHI
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
BACK TO THE TOP
JKL
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. Untreated, it is fatal in 8 days
Long sickness - Tuberculosis
Lues disease - Syphilis
Lues venera - Venereal disease
Lumbago - Back pain
Lung fever - Pneumonia
Lung sickness - Tuberculosis
Lying in - Time of delivery of infant
BACK TO THE TOP
MNO
Malignant sore throat - Diphtheria
Mania - Insanity
Marasmus - Progressive wasting away of body, like malnutrition
Membranous Croup - Diphtheria
Meningitis - Inflations of brain or spinal cord
Metritis - Inflammation of uterus or purulent vaginal discharge
Miasma - Poisonous vapors thought to infect the air
Milk fever - Disease from drinking contaminated milk, like undulant fever
or brucellosis
Milk leg - Post partum thrombophlebitis
Milk sickness -
Disease from milk of cattle 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
Nepritis - Inflammation of kidneys
Nervous
prostration - Extreme exhaustion from inability to control physical and
mental activities
Neuralgia - Described as discomfort, such as "Headache"
was neuralgia in head
Nostalgia - Homesickness
BACK TO THE TOP
PQR
Palsy - Paralysis or
uncontrolled movement of controlled muscles. It was listed as "Cause of
death"
Paroxysm - Convulsion 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
Puerperal exhaustion - Death due to child
birth
Phthiriasis - Lice infestation
Phthisis - Chronic wasting away or a
name for tuberculosis
Plague - An acute febrile highly infectious disease
with a high fatality rate
Pleurisy - Any pain in the chest area with each
breath
Podagra - Gout
Poliomyelitis - Polio
Potter's asthma - Fibroid
pthisis
Pott's disease - Tuberculosis of 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.
Remitting fever - Malaria Rheumatism -
Any disorder associated with pain in joints
Rickets - Disease of skeletal
system
Rose cold - Hay fever or nasal symptoms of an allergy
Rotanny fever
- (Child's disease) ???
Rubeola - German measles
BACK TO THE TOP
STU
Sanguineous crust - Scab
Scarlatina - Scarlet fever
Scarlet fever - A disease characterized by red
rash
Scarlet rash - Roseola
Sciatica - Rheumatism in the hips
Scirrhus -
Cancerous tumors
Scotomy - Dizziness, nausea and dimness of sight
Scrivener's palsy - Writer's cramp
Screws - Rheumatism
Scrofula -
Tuberculosis of neck lymph glands. Progresses slowly with abscesses and
pistulas develop. Young person's disease
Scrumpox - Skin disease, impetigo
Scurvy - Lack of vitamin C. Symptoms of weakness, spongy gums and
hemorrhages under skin
Septicemia - Blood poisoning
Shakes - Delirium
tremens
Shaking - Chills, ague
Shingles - Viral disease with skin
blisters
Ship fever - Typhus
Siriasis - Inflammation of the brain due to
sun exposure
Sloes - Milk sickness
Small pox - Contagious disease with
fever and blisters
Softening of brain - Result of stroke or hemorrhage in
the brain, with an end result of the tissue softening in that area
Sore
throat distemper - Diphtheria or quinsy
Spanish influenza - Epidemic
influenza
Spasms - Sudden involuntary contraction of muscle or group of
muscles, like a convulsion
Spina bifida - Deformity of spine
Spotted fever
- Either typhus or meningitis
Sprue - Tropical disease characterized by
intestinal disorders and sore throat
St. Anthony's fire - Also
erysipelas, but named so because of affected skin areas are bright red in
appearance
St. Vitas dance - Ceaseless occurrence of rapid complex jerking
movements performed involuntary
Stomatitis - Inflammation of the mouth
Stranger's fever - Yellow fever
Strangery - Rupture
Sudor anglicus -
Sweating sickness
Summer complaint - Diarrhea, usually in infants caused
by spoiled milk
Sunstroke - Uncontrolled elevation of body temperature due
to environment heat. Lack of sodium in the body is a predisposing cause
Swamp sickness - Could be malaria, typhoid or encephalitis
Sweating
sickness - Infectious and fatal disease common to UK in 15th century
Tetanus - Infectious fever characterized by high fever, headache and
dizziness Thrombosis - Blood clot inside blood vessel
Thrush - Childhood
disease characterized by spots on mouth, lips and throat
Tick fever -
Rocky mountain spotted fever
Toxemia of pregnancy - Eclampsia
Trench mouth
- Painful ulcers found along gum line, Caused by poor nutrition and poor
hygiene
Tussis convulsiva - Whooping cough
Typhus - Infectious fever
characterized high fever, headache, and dizziness
BACK TO THE TOP
VWX
Variola - Smallpox
Venesection - Bleeding
Viper's dance - St. Vitus Dance
Water on brain -
Enlarged head
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
BACK TO THE TOP