KERN-L Archives

From: Chet Swanson <>
Subject: Disease List--LONG
Date: Sun, 25 Aug 1996 09:22:16 -0700

This is a possible repeat, it was posted on 8/24/96, but has not been on
the list yet.

THIS IS A LONG POST! The following article was copied from another mail
list on the Internet. I am sending it on to you for your personal use and
information. This article is probably subject to copyright laws and
should not be reproduced for profit without permission of the author.

This article, from the NGSQ, should provide the final word on the matter
of "old diseases" that has been the subject of many posts here.

Most of the definitions of diagnoses in the glossary that follows are
from medical dictionaries or medical texts compiled at different points
in the nineteenth century. [see NOTES AND REFERENCES at end of article].
To determine which medical terms should be defined, the author has
surveyed various mortality schedules, death certificates, and other
medical sources of the nineteenth century. While he has tried to submit
the best-possible interpretation of these terms, there are certainly
other interpretations which may be valid.

Glossary

Abscess. A localized collection of pus buried in tissues, organs, or
confined spaces of the body, often accompanied by swelling and
inflammation and frequently caused by bacteria. The brain, lung, or
kidney (for instance) could be involved. See boil.

Addison's disease. A disease characterized by severe weakness, low blood
pressure, and a bronzed coloration of the skin, due to decreased
secretion of cortisol from the adrenal gland. Dr. Thomas Addison
(1793-1860), born near Newcastle, England, described the disease in 1855.
Synonyms: Morbus addisonii, bronzed skin disease.

Ague. Malarial or intermittent fever characterized by paroxysms (stages
of chills, fever, and sweating at regularly recurring times) and followed
by an interval or intermission whose length determines the epithets:
quotidian, tertian, quartan, and quintan ague (defined in the text).
Popularly, the disease was known as "fever and ague," "chill fever," "the
shakes," and by names expressive of the locality in which it was
prevalent--such as, "swamp fever" (in Louisiana), "Panama fever," and
"Chagres fever."

Ague-cake. A form of enlargement of the spleen, resulting from the action
of malaria on the system.

Anasarca. Generalized massive dropsy. See dropsy.

Aphthae. See thrush.

Aphthous stomatitis. See canker.

Ascites. See dropsy.

Asthenia. See debility.

Bilious fever. A term loosely applied to certain enteric (intestinal) and
malarial fevers. See typhus.

Biliousness. A complex of symptoms comprising nausea, abdominal
discomfort, headache, and constipation--formerly attributed to excessive
secretion of bile from the liver.

Boil. An abscess of skin or painful, circumscribed inflammation of the
skin or a hair follicle, having a dead, pus-forming inner core, usually
caused by a staphylococcal infection. Synonym: furuncle.

Brain fever. See meningitis, typhus.

Bronchial asthma. A paroxysmal, often allergic disorder of breathing,
characterized by spasm of the bronchial tubes of the lungs, wheezing, and
difficulty in breathing air outward--often accompanied by coughing and a
feeling of tightness in the chest. In the nineteenth century the direct
causes were thought to be dust, vegetable irritants, chemical vapors,
animal emanations, climatic influences, and bronchial inflammation--all
of which were reasonable guesses. The indirect causes were thought to be
transmissions by the nervous system or by the blood from gout, syphilis,
skin disease, renal disease, or heredity. Only the latter cause was a
reasonable assumption.

Camp fever. See typhus.

Cancer. A malignant and invasive growth or tumor (especially tissue that
covers a surface or lines a cavity), tending to recur after excision and
to spread to other sites. In the nineteenth century, physicians noted
that cancerous tumors tended to ulcerate, grew constantly, and progressed
to a fatal end and that there was scarcely a tissue they would not
invade. Synonyms: malignant growth, carcinoma.

Cancrum otis. A severe, destructive, eroding ulcer of the cheek and lip,
rapidly proceeding to sloughing. In the last century it was seen in
delicate, ill-fed, ill-tended children between the ages of two and five.
The disease was the result of poor hygiene acting upon a debilitated
system. It commonly followed one of the eruptive fevers and was often
fatal. The destructive disease could, in a few days, lead to gangrene of
the lips, cheeks, tonsils, palate, tongue, and even half the face; teeth
would fall from their sockets, and a horribly fetid saliva flowed from
the parts. Synonyms: canker, water canker, noma, gangrenous stomatitis,
gangrenous ulceration of the mouth.

Canker. An ulcerous sore of the mouth and lips, not considered fatal
today. Synonym: aphthous stomatitis. See cancrum otis.

Carcinoma. See cancer.

Catarrh. Inflammation of a mucous membrane, especially of the air
passages of the head and throat, with a free discharge. It is
characterized by cough, thirst, lassitude, fever, watery eyes, and
increased secretions of mucus from the air passages. Bronchial catarrh
was bronchitis; suffocative catarrh was croup; urethral catarrh was
gleet; vaginal catarrh was leukorrhea; epidemic catarrh was the same as
influenza. Synonyms: cold, coryza.

Childbirth. A cause given for many female deaths of the century. Almost
all babies were born in homes and usually were delivered by a family
member or a midwife; thus infection and lack of medical skill were often
the actual causes of death.

Cholera. An acute, infectious disease, endemic in India and China and now
occasionally epidemic elsewhere--characterized by profuse diarrhea,
vomiting, and cramps. It is caused by a potent toxin discharged by the
bacterium Vibrio cholerae, which acts on the small intestine to cause
secretion of large amounts of fluid. The painless, watery diarrhea and
the passing of rice-water stool are characteristic. Great body-salt
depletion occurs. Cholera is spread by feces-contaminated water and food.
Major epidemics struck the United States in the years 1832, 1849, and
1866. In the 1830s the causes were generally thought to be intemperance
in the use of ardent spirits or drinking bad water; uncleanness, poor
living or crowded and ill-ventilated dwellings; and too much fatigue. By
1850 cholera was thought to be caused by putrid animal poison and miasma
or pestilential vapor rising from swamps and marshes--or that it entered
the body through the lungs or was transmitted through the medium of
clothing. It was still believed that it attacked the poor, the dissolute,
the diseased, and the fearful-- while the healthy, well-clad, well-fed,
and fearless man escaped the ravages of cholera.

Cholera infantum. A common, noncontagious diarrhea of young children,
occurring in summer or autumn. In the nineteenth century it was
considered indigenous to the United States; was prevalent during the hot
weather in most of the towns of the middle and southern states, as well
as many western areas; and was characterized by gastric pain, vomiting,
purgation, fever, and prostration. It was common among the poor and in
hand-fed babies. Death frequently occurred in three to five days.
Synonyms: summer complaint, weaning brash, water gripes, choleric fever
of children, cholera morbus.

Chorea. Any of several diseases of the nervous system, characterized by
jerky movements that appear to be well coordinated but are performed
involuntarily, chiefly of the face and extremities. Synonym: Saint Vitus'
dance.

Chronic. Persisting over a long period of time as opposed to acute or
sudden. This word was often the only one entered under "cause of death"
in the mortality schedules. The actual disease meant by the term is open
to speculation.

Colic. Paroxysmal pain in the abdomen or bowels. Infantile colic is
benign paroxysmal abdominal pain during the first three months of life.
Colic rarely caused death; but in the last century a study reported that
in cases of death, intussusception (the prolapse of one part of the
intestine into the lumen of an immediately adjoining part) occasionally
occurred. Renal colic can occur from disease in the kidney, gallstone
colic from a stone in the bile duct.

Congestion. An excessive or abnormal accumulation of blood or other fluid
in a body part or blood vessel. In congestive fever (see text), the
internal organs become gorged with blood.

Consumption. A wasting away of the body; formerly applied especially to
pulmonary tuberculosis. The disorder is now known to be an infectious
disease caused by the bacterial species Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
Synonyms: marasmus (in the mid-nineteenth century), phthisis.

Convulsions. Severe contortion of the body caused by violent, involuntary
muscular contractions of the extremities, trunk, and head. See epilepsy.

Coryza. See catarrh.

Croup. Any obstructive condition of the larynx (voice box) or trachea
(windpipe), characterized by a hoarse, barking cough and difficult
breathing occurring chiefly in infants and children. The obstruction
could be caused by allergy, a foreign body, infection, or new growth
(tumor). In the early-nineteenth century it was called cynanche
trachealis. The crouping noise was similar to the sound emitted by a
chicken affected with the pip, which in some parts of Scotland was called
roup; hence, probably, the term croup. Synonyms: roup, hives, choak,
stuffing, rising of the lights.

Debility. Abnormal bodily weakness or feebleness; decay of strength. This
was a term descriptive of a patient's condition and of no help in making
a diagnosis. Synonym: asthenia.

Diphtheria. An acute infectious disease caused by toxigenic strains of
the bacillus Corynebacterium diphtheriae, acquired by contact with an
infected person or a carrier of the disease. It was usually confined to
the upper respiratory tract (throat) and characterized by the formation
of a tough membrane (false membrane) attached firmly to the underlying
tissue that would bleed if forcibly removed. In the nineteenth century
the disease was occasionally confused with scarlet fever and croup.

Dropsy. A contraction for hydropsy. Edema, the presence of abnormally
large amounts of fluid in intercellular tissue spaces or body cavities.
Abdominal dropsy is ascites; brain dropsy is hydrocephalus; and chest
dropsy is hydrothorax. Cardiac dropsy is a symptom of disease of the
heart and arises from obstruction to the current of blood through the
heart, lungs, or liver. Anasarca is general fluid accumulation throughout
the body.

Dysentery. A term given to a number of disorders marked by inflammation
of the intestines (especially of the colon) and attended by pain in the
abdomen, by tenesmus (straining to defecate without the ability to do
so), and by frequent stools containing blood and mucus. The causative
agent may be chemical irritants, bacteria, protozoa, or parasitic worms.
There are two specific varieties: (1) amebic dysentery caused by the
protozoan Entamoeba histolytica; (2) bacillary dysentery caused by
bacteria of the genus Shigella. Dysentery was one of the most severe
scourges of armies in the nineteenth century. The several forms of
dysentery and diarrhea accounted for more than one-fourth of all the
cases of disease reported during the first two years of the Civil War.
Synonyms: flux, bloody flux, contagious pyrexia (fever), frequent griping
stools.

Eclampsia. A form of toxemia (toxins--or poisons--in the blood)
accompanying pregnancy, characterized by albuminuria (protein in the
urine), by hypertension (high blood pressure), and by convulsions. In the
last century, the term was used for any form of convulsion. Edema. See
dropsy.

Effluvia. Exhalations or emanations, applied especially to those of
noxious character. In the mid-nineteenth century, they were called
"vapours" and distinguished into the contagious effluvia, such as
rubeolar (measles); marsh effluvia, such as miasmata; and those arising
from animals or vegetables, such as odors.

Emphysema, pulmonary. A chronic, irreversible disease of the lungs,
characterized by abnormal enlargement of air spaces in the lungs and
accompanied by destruction of the tissue lining the walls of the air
sacs. By 1900 the condition was recognized as a chronic disease of the
lungs associated with marked dyspnea (shortness of breath), hacking
cough, defective aeration (oxygenation) of the blood, cyanosis (blue
color of facial skin), and a full and rounded or "barrel-shaped" chest.
This disease is now most commonly associated with tobacco smoking.

Enteric fever. See typhoid fever.

Epilepsy. A disorder of the nervous system, characterized either by mild,
episodic loss of attention or sleepiness (petittnal) or by severe
convulsions with loss of consciousness (grand mal). Synonyms: falling
sickness, fits.

Erysipelas. An acute, febrile, infectious disease, caused by a specific
group ~4 streptococcus bacterium and characterized by a diffusely
spreading, deep-red inflammation of the skin or mucous membranes causing
a rash with a well-defined margin. Synonyms: Rose, Saint Anthony's Fire
(from its burning heat or, perhaps, because Saint Anthony was supposed to
cure it miraculously).

Flux. See dysentery.

Gangrene. Death and decay of tissue in a part of the body--usually a
limb--due to injury, disease, or failure of blood supply. Synonym:
mortification.

Gleet. See catarrh.

Gravel. A disease characterized by multiple small calculi (stones or
concretions of mineral salts) which are formed in the kidneys, passed
along the ureters to the bladder, and expelled with the urine. Synonym:
kidney stone.

Hectic fever. A daily recurring fever with profound sweating, chills, and
flushed appearance-- often associated with pulmonary tuberculosis or
septic poisoning.

Hives. A skin eruption of wheals (smooth, slightly elevated areas on the
skin) which is redder or paler than the surrounding skin. Often attended
by severe itching, it usually changes its size or shape or disappears
within a few hours. It is the dermal evidence of allergy. See the
discussion under croup; also called cynanche trachealis. In the
mid-nineteenth century, hives was a commonly given cause of death of
children three years and under. Because true hives does not kill, croup
was probably the actual cause of death in those children.

Hospital fever. See typhus.

Hydrocephalus. See dropsy.

Hydrothorax. See dropsy.

Icterus. See jaundice.

Inanition. Exhaustion from lack of nourishment; starvation. A condition
characterized by marked weakness, extreme weight loss, and a decrease in
metabolism resulting from severe and prolonged (usually weeks to months)
insufficiency of food.

Infection. The affection or contamination of a person, organ, or wound
with invading, multiplying, disease-producing germs--such as bacteria,
rickettsiae, viruses, molds, yeasts, and protozoa. In the early part of
the last century, infections were thought to be the propagation of
disease by effluvia (see above) from patients crowded together. "Miasms"
were believed to be substances which could not be seen in any
form--emanations not apparent to the senses. Such miasms were understood
to act by infection.

Inflammation. Redness, swelling, pain, tenderness, heat, and disturbed
function of an area of the body, especially as a reaction of tissue to
injurious agents. This mechanism serves as a localized and protective
response to injury. The word ending -itis denotes inflammation on the
part indicated by the word stem to which it is attached--that is,
appendicitis, pleuritis, etc. Microscopically, it involves a complex
series of events, including enlargement of the sizes of blood vessels;
discharge of fluids, including plasma proteins; and migration of
leukocytes (white blood cells) into the inflammatory focus. In the last
century, cause of death often was listed as inflammation of a body
organ--such as, brain or lung--but this was purely a descriptive term and
is not helpful in identifying the actual underlying disease.

Intussusception. The slipping of one part within another, as the prolapse
of one part of the intestine into the lumen of an immediately adjoining
part. This leads to obstruction and often must be relieved by surgery.
Synonym: introsusception.

Jail fever. See typhus.

Jaundice. Yellow discoloration of the skin, whites of the eyes, and
mucous membranes, due to an increase of bile pigments in the blood--often
symptomatic of certain diseases, such as hepatitis, obstruction of the
bile duct, or cancer of the liver. Synonym: icterus.

Kidney stone. See gravel.

Kings evil. A popular name for scrofula. The name originated in the time
of Edward the Confessor, with the belief that the disease could be cured
by the touch of the king of England.

Lockjaw. Tetanus, a disease in which the jaws become firmly locked
together. Synonyms: trismus, tetanus.

Malignant fever. See typhus.

Marasmus. Malnutrition occurring in infants and young children, caused by
an insufficient intake of calories or protein and characterized by
thinness, dry skin, poor muscle development, and irritability. In the
mid-nineteenth century, specific causes were associated with specific
ages: In infants under twelve months old, the causes were believed to be
unsuitable food, chronic vomiting, chronic diarrhea, and inherited
syphilis. Between one and three years, marasmus was associated with
rickets or cancer. After the age of three years, caseous (cheeselike)
enlargement of the mesenteric glands (located in the peritoneal fold
attaching the small intestine to the body wall) became a given cause of
wasting. (See tabes mesenterica.) After the sixth year, chronic pulmonary
tuberculosis appeared to be the major cause. Marasmus is now considered
to be related to kwashiorkor, a severe protein deficiency.

Meningitis. Inflammation of the meninges (the three membranes covering
the brain and spinal cord), especially of the pia mater and
arachnoid--caused by a bacterial or viral infection and characterized
high fever, severe headache, and stiff neck or back muscles. Synonym:
brain fever.

Morbus. Latin word for disease. In the last century, when applied to a
particular disease, morbus was associated with some qualifying adjective
or noun, indicating the nature or seat of such disease. Examples: morbus
cordis, heart disease; morbus caducus, epilepsy or failing sickness.

Neuralgia. Sharp and paroxysmal pain along the course of a sensory nerve.
There are many causes: anemia, diabetes, gout, malaria, syphilis. Many
varieties of neuralgia are distinguished according to the part
affected--such as face, arm, leg.

Paristhmitis. See quinsy.

Petechial fever. See typhus.

Phthisis. See consumption.

Pleurisy. Inflammation of the pleura, the membranous sac lining the chest
cavity, with or without fluid collected in the pleural cavity. Symptoms
are chills, fever, dry cough, and pain in the affected side (a stitch).

Pneumonia. Inflammation of the lungs with congestion or
consolidation---caused by viruses, bacteria, or physical and chemical
agents.

Pus. A yellow-white, more or less viscid substance found in abscesses and
sores, consisting of a liquid plasma in which white blood cells are
formed and suspended by the process of inflammation.

Putrid fever. See typhus.

Putrid sore throat. Ulceration of an acute form, attacking the tonsils
and rapidly running into sloughing of the fauces (the cavity at the back
of the mouth, leading to the pharynx).

Pyrexia. See dysentery.

Quinsy. A fever, or a febrile condition. An acute inflammation of the
tonsils, often leading to an abscess; peritonsillar abscess. Synonyms:
suppurative tonsillitis, cynanche tonsillaris, paristhmitis, sore throat.

Scarlatina. Scarlet fever. A contagious febrile disease, caused by
infection with the bacteria group. A beta-hemolytic streptococci (which
elaborate a toxin with an affinity for red blood cells) and characterized
by a scarlet eruption, tonsillitis, and pharyngitis.

Scrofula. Primary tuberculosis of the lymphatic glands, especially those
in the neck. A disease of children and young adults, it represents a
direct extension of tuberculosis into the skin from underlying lymph
nodes. It evolves into cold abscesses, multiple skin ulcers, and draining
sinus tracts. Synonym: king's evil.

Septic. Infected, a condition of local or generalized invasion of the
body by disease-causing microorganisms (germs) or their toxins.

Ship fever. See typhus.

Spotted fever. See typhus.

Suffocation. The stoppage of respiration. In the nineteenth century,
suffocation was reported as being accidental or homicidal. The accidents
could be by the impaction of pieces of food or other obstacles in the
pharynx or by the entry of foreign bodies into the larynx (as a seed,
coin, or food). Suffocation of newborn children by smothering under
bedclothes may have happened from carelessness as well as from intent.
However, the deaths also could have been due to SIDS (sudden infant death
syndrome), wherein the sudden and unexpected death of an apparently
healthy infant, while asleep, typically occurs between the ages of three
weeks and five months and is not explained by careful postmortem studies.
Synonyms of SIDS: crib death and cot death. It was felt that victims of
homicidal suffocation were chiefly infants or feeble and infirm persons.

Summer complaint. See cholera infantum.

Suppuration. The production of pus.

Tabes mesenterica. Tuberculosis of the mesenteric glands in children,
resulting in digestive derangement and wasting of the body.

Teething. The entire process which results in the eruption of the teeth.
Nineteenth-century medical reports stated that infants were more prone to
disease at the time of teething. Symptoms were restlessness, fretfulness,
convulsions, diarrhea, and painful and swollen gums. The latter could be
relieved by lancing over the protruding tooth. Often teething was
reported as a cause of death in infants. Perhaps they became susceptible
to infections, especially if lancing was performed without antisepsis.
Another explanation of teething as a cause of death is that infants were
often weaned at the time of teething; perhaps they then died from
drinking contaminated milk, leading to an infection, or from malnutrition
if watered-down milk was given.

Tetanus. An infectious, often-fatal disease caused by a specific
bacterium, Clostridium tetani, that enters the body through wounds;
characterized by respiratory paralysis and tonic spasms and rigidity of
the voluntary muscles, especially those of the neck and lower jaw.
Synonyms: trismus, lockjaw.

Thrush. A disease characterized by whitish spots and ulcers on the
membranes of the mouth, tongue, and fauces caused by a parasitic fungus,
Candida albicans. Thrush usually affects sick, weak infants and elderly
individuals in poor health. Now it is a common complication from
excessive use of broad-spectrum antibiotics or cortisone treatment.
Synonyms: aphthae, sore mouth, aphthous stomatitis.

Trismus nascentium or neonatorum. A form of tetanus seen only in infants,
almost invariably in the first five days of life, probably due to
infection of the umbilical stump.

Typhoid fever An infectious, often-fatal, febrile disease, usually
occurring in the summer months--characterized by intestinal inflammation
and ulceration caused by the bacterium Salmonella typhi, which is usually
introduced by food or drink. Symptoms include prolonged hectic fever,
malaise, transient characteristic skin rash (rose spots), abdominal pain,
enlarged spleen, slowness of heart rate, delirium, and low white-blood
cell count. The name came from the disease's similarity to typhus (see
below). Synonym: enteric fever.

Typhus. An acute, infectious disease caused by several micro-organism
species of Rickettsia (transmitted by lice and fleas) and characterized
by acute prostration, high fever, depression, delirium, headache, and a
peculiar eruption of reddish spots on the body. The epidemic or classic
form is louse borne; the endemic or murine is flea borne. Synonyms:
typhus fever, malignant fever (in the 1850s), jail fever, hospital fever,
ship fever, putrid fever, brain fever, bilious fever, spotted fever,
petechial fever, camp fever.

Virus. An ultramicroscopic, metabolically inert infectious agent that
replicates only within the cells of living hosts, mainly bacteria,
plants, and animals. In the early 1800s virus meant poison, venom, or
contagion.

Yellow fever. An acute, often-fatal, infectious febrile disease of warm
climates--caused by a virus transmitted by mosquitoes, especially Aledes
aegypti, and characterized by liver damage and jaundice, fever, and
protein in the urine. In 1900 Walter Reed and others in Panama found that
mosquitoes transmit the disease. Clinicians in. the late nineteenth
century recognized "specific yellow fever" as being different from
"malarious yellow fever." The latter supposedly was a form of malaria
with liver involvement but without urine involvement.

NOTES AND REFERENCES

William Cullen, First Lines of the Practice of Physic with Practical and
Explanatory Notes by John Rotheram (New York: Evert Duyckinck, 1801 );
Robert Hooper, Lexicon-Medicum or Medical Dictionary (New York: J. & J.
Harper, 1826); Marshall Hail, The Principles of Diagnosis (New York: D.
Appleton & Co., 1835); Robley Dunglison, A Dictionary of Medical Science,
Containing a Concise Account of the Various Subjects and Terms
(Philadelphia: Lea and Blanchard, 1844); Richard D. Hoblyn, A Dictionary
of Terms Used in Medicine and the Collateral Sciences (Philadelphia:
Henry C. Lea, 1865); William Aitken, The Science and Practice of
Medicine, 2 vols. (Philadelphia: Lindsay & Blakiston, 1872); Richard
Quain, ed., A Dictionary of Medicine (New York: D. Appleton and Company,
1883); Austin Flint, A Treatise on the Principles and Practice of
Medicine (Philadelphia: Henry C. Lea's Son & Co., 1884); George M. Gould,
An Illustrated Dictionary of Medicine, Biology, and Allied Sciences
(Philadelphia: P. Blakiston's Son & Co., 1901); Glentworth Reeve Butler,
The Diagnostics of Internal Medicine (New York and London: D. Appleton
and Company, 1903); The Random House Dictionary of the English Language,
2d ed., unabridged (New York: Random House, 1987); Dorland's Illustrated
Medical Dictionary (Philadelphia: W.B. Saunders Co., 1988).

From the article "Disease and Death in the Nineteenth Century: A
Genealogical Perspective", by James Byars Carter, M.D. Exerpted from a
complete article on the subject from The National Genealogical Society
Quarterly, Vol. 76, (Dec 1988) pp 289-301.

--
Chet Swanson
mailto:
Everett, WA
"Maturity is a high price to pay for growing up."
(Tom Stoppard, The Plays for Radio 1964-91)

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• Disease List--LONG by Chet Swanson <>