Common 19th Century Diseases

[Descriptions taken by permission of the author from the website, Archaic Medical Terms by Paul Smith]

Albumruma - The presence of protein in the urine. Found in many kidney diseases such as diabetic nephropathy, hypertensive nephropathy, glomerulonephritis, and nephrotic syndrome.

Anascarca - A generalized massive interactable oedema results from heart or renal failure.

Ancursion Abdominal - This was also called abdominal angina, a term used to describe recurrent, severe and sudden abdominal pain suffered by the elderly. The cause may have been poor blood supply to the bowel.
Asphyxia - Literally means pulselessness or severe breathlessness. This is a mode, rather than a cause of death.

Apoplexy - A sudden loss of sensation and movement resulting from a disturbance in the blood supply to the brain. A euphemism for a stroke.
Ascites - Abnormal collection of fluid in the abdomen, often the result of liver disease, especially cancer, heart, or kidney failure.

Asthenia - Weakness which may be a euphemism for pulmonary tuberculosis.

Atelectasis - A condition in which the lung alveoli did not contain air, never expanded, or collapsed.

Asthma - A common disorder in which chronic inflammation of the bronchial tubes (bronchi) makes them swell, narrowing the airways. Asthma involves only the bronchial tubes and does not affect the air sacs (alveoli) or the lung tissue (the parenchyma of the lung) itself. Airway narrowing in asthma results from three major processes acting on the bronchi: inflammation (see above), spasm (bronchospasm), and hyperreactivity (over-reaction of the bronchi to factors that can precipitate asthma). Precipitents to asthma include environmental influences (allergy, infection, lifestyle, and diet), although genetics are suspected, primarily because of the clustering of cases within families and the concordance for asthma in identical twins.

Bilious Dysentery - A sickness assumed to be caused by too much bile. Inflammation of the intestine, often with pain, diarrhea, bloody stools, etc., is usually caused by infestation of the bowel by an ameba. Dysentery can be fatal, usually resulting from severe dehydration. This is a common disorder in which chronic inflammation of the brochial tubes results in swelling and a narrowing of the airways.

Bilious Remittent Fever - A loose term for an illness that includes vomiting, fever, and sometimes jaundice. This could be in reference to fevers such as malaria, typhus, typhoid, or even hepatitis.
Bright's Disease - a term in medicine applied to a class of diseases of the kidneys (acute and chronic nephritis) which have as their most prominent symptom the presence of albumen in the urine, and frequently also the coexistence of dropsy
Catarrh Suffocation - Inflammation of the mucous membrane in which the air passages are blocked.

Cholera - Was discovered by German bacteriologist Robert Koch as a contagion in 1883 caused by a bacteria. The key to treating cholera is prompt and complete replacement of the fluid and salt lost through the profuse diarrhea. Patients are rehydrated with an oral solution which is a prepackaged mixture of sugar and salts that is then mixed with water and drunk in large amounts. Today, with prompt and complete oral rehydration, fewer than 1% of cholera patients now die. Very severe cases of cholera, especially those in which oral rehydration was not started in time, may also require intravenous fluid replacement. Antibiotics do shorten the course and diminish the severity of the illness, but they are not as important as rehydration. Because of modern sanitary practices, cholera is no longer as common and only occurs when people live in unsanitary crowded conditions, such as refuge camps.

Cholera Infantism - A devastating and sometimes lethal disease with intense vomiting and profuse watery diarrhea leading to dehydration which, unless immediately treated, may be fatal.

Cholera Morbus - An illness that includes vomiting, abdominal cramps, and fever. Could be a euphemism for appendicities.

Cirrhosis of the Liver - Hardening of the liver caused by necrosis.

Colic - Bowel pain that is cyclical and coming from any tubular organ (such as the renal, bowel, or biliary).
Congestion of Brain and Lungs - For the brain, this referred to meningitis for young people and a stroke for adults. For the lungs, this referred to malaria or pneumonia.
Congestive Chill - Usually means malaria or pneumonia.
Consumption - The wasting away of the body, especially from tuberculosis.

Croup - Caused by a parainfluenza virus associated with swellings of the largynx and trachea.

Dentition - Occurs in infants and young children. It is when the set of 20 first (deciduous) teeth become infected.

Diptheria - An acute infectious disease in upper respiratory tract. This forms a tough membrane which attaches itself to the underlying tissue (usually tonsils) that bleeds if removed. The organism produces toxins that affect circulation.
Dysentery - An inflammation of the intestines with evacuation of blood and mucous (bacillary or amoebic dysentery).
Emphysema - A chronic disease of the lungs resulting from asthma, collapsed lung, tumor or inflamation causing airway obstruction, or the result of an inherited condition.

Endocarditis - A disease or infection of the heart valves. May be the result of rheumatic fever.

Fibroid Phthisis - Benign smooth muscle tumor of the uterus. May cause irregular vaginal bleeding.

Heart Attack - Myocardial infarction (when the blood supply to the heart ceases and the muscle dies).

Heart Dropsy - Heart failure.

Hematemesis - Vomiting blood with no cause given.

Hemplegia - Paralysis of one side of the body, probably from a stroke.

Hydrochaphalus - The existence of an excessive amount of brain and spinal fluid (causes the head to enlarge in children).

Hydrops Pericarditis - Inflammation of the hydro pericardium (which is fluid in a sac surrounding the heart).

Influenza - A highly contagious viral disease which causes fever, muscular pain, and inflammation of the respiratory system.
Intermittent Fever - Often another name for malaria because of bouts/episodes of fever,

Intestinal Mortification - Gangrene of the intestines resulting from severe infection.

La Grippe - A euphemism for influenza.

Lock Jaw - Widespread disease (called tetanus) caused by a parasite in teh blood. The anopheline mosquito is responsible for transmitting the parasite usually in unsanitary areas.

Lung Disease/Lung Congestion - Tuberculosis or pnemonia.

Mitral Insufficiency - This occurs when the mitral valve in the heart does not close properly and thus leaks. The result is heart failure (overworking of the heart) or a heart murmur. This condition is often caused by rhematic fever or high blood pressure.

Marasmus - Malnutrition, resulting from an insufficient protein and vitamin intake. This condition occurs primarily in infants, young children, and adults with mental deficiencies or disease.

Morbus Brighties - Bright's Disease.

Myocardial Degeneration/Insufficiency/Myocarditis - Degeneration of the heart muscle or the inflammation of the heart muscle. This is often used as a euphemism for Old Age.

Natural Causes - Refers to a death from something other than homicide, accident, or suicide. It often is assigned to those who are elderly.

Nephritis - Inflammation of the kidney.
Nervousness - Often a euphemism for depression, emotional, or mental disorder.
Oedema of the Lungs - An excess of fluid within a tissue or organ. This occurs within air spaces of teh lungs and results in breathlessness and frequent (and sometimes) bloody coughing. The usual cause is heart failure.

Old Age - Natural decay of the body's organs, often heart failure, myocardial degeneration, morbus cordis, or multiple organ failure.

Peritonitis - When the membrane surrounding the abdominal digestive organs (peritoneum) becomes inflammed. The primary condition results from the spread of bacteria. The secondary one results from a rupture or performation of diseased digestive organs (i.e., appendicitis, cancer, peptic ulcer).

Phthisis Pulmonalis - A Greek word meaning "a dwindling or wasting away." Pronounced "thi-sis." The tongue-twisting name "nephronophthisis" is derived from "nephron" (A key unit, both anatomically and functionally, of the kidney) + "phthisis." The nephron is the fundamental functional unit in the kidney and includes the renal tubule and glomerulus. In nephronophthisis the kidney is progressively destroyed and the child wastes away. Phthisis is an archaic name for tuberculosis. A person afflicted with tuberculosis in the old days was destined to dwindle and waste away like Mimi, the heroine of Puccini's 1896 opera "La Bohème." A wasting or consumption of the tissues. The term was formerly applied to many wasting diseases, but is now usually restricted to pulmonary phthisis, or consumption.

Pleuritis - Inflammation of the membrane surrounding the lungs (pleura).

Pneumonia - Inflammation of the lungs with consolidation.

Puerperal Metritis - Inflamation of the uterus or purulent vaginal discharge.

Pyaemia - Septicaemia.

Rheumatic Fever - A disease of children and young adults that is a delayed complication of an infection in the throat or nose caused by a haemolytic streptoccoccus. Typically the features of this disease include fever, arthritis, rash, skin nodules, and carditis (inflammation of the heart).

Rheumatism - Any disorder associated with pain in joints. This could be a euphemism for rheumatic fever.
Scarlett Fever - Acute and potentially infectious fever wtih rash caused by haemolytic streptococcus infection of the throat.

Scrofula - Primarily tuberculosis of the lymphatic glands, especially in the neck. Especially prevalent in children and young adults.
Septicaemia - Blood poisoning resulting from the invasion by organisms into the bloodstream.
Teething - This means the "cutting teeth" in infants which does not cause death. However, infections or malnutrition do result and could be the cause of death.
Tetanus - An infectious, often fatal disease caused by a specific bacterium that enters the body through wounds. This infection causes severe muscle spasms especially of the jaw muscles. Soil, maure, and the mouths of cattle are the usual souces of this bacterium.
Tetanus Neonatorum - Tetanus in the newborn resulting from the umbilical cord stump, following birth in unhygienic conditions.
Thrush - Candida of the mouth or genitals. Off white spots and ulcers occurred on the mucous membranes of the mouth, tongue, and fauces whereas a parasitic fungus affects the genitals.
Tobes Mesenterica - Tuberculosis of the lymph glands inside the abdomen. Children contracted it from cow milk infected with tuberculosis.
Trismus - The inability of a person to open the mouth because of spasm of the chewing muscles. The cause of death is probably tetanus.
Trismus Nascentium - Tetanus neonatorum.

Tuberculosis - A highly contagious infection caused by the bacterium called Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tubercles (tiny lumps) are a characteristic finding. Diagnosis may be made by skin test, which if positive should will be followed by a chest X-ray to determine the status (active or dormant) of the infection. Although there are millions of new cases of TB each year, not everyone exposed to the bacterium becomes infected nor does everybody infected with it develop clinical symptoms of TB. A genetic region has been discovered to be associated with clinical TB. People with at least one high-risk copy of this genetic region are ten times more likely to develop TB than normal. Tuberculosis is also more common in people with immune-system problems.

Typhoid Malarial Fever - Causes severe diarrhea and caused by an organism (salmonella typhi). This disease is spread by contaminated food or water with human feces either by sewage or flies.