Understanding Medical Terms
By Vera Lewis

Every family historian or genealogist, while reading death records, pension records, military records, letter or diaries, has at one time or other come upon medical terms which are uncommon today. Early families suffered from diseases such as "Barber's Itch," "Consumption," "Flux," "Dropsy," and "La Grippe". While researching you might be interested in defining such an ailment. Defining these ailments may give the family historian a glance of how their family member or family suffered. Also, the family historian or genealogist may discover a pattern to a disease which has affected their family for generations.

The following medical terms can assist the family historian or genealogist:

Ague

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Fever; malaria fever

Air Swelling

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Tympanites; distention of the abdomen, due to the presence of gas or air in the intestine.

Ankylosis

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Inability of a joint to function, because of stiffness or fusion of the joint.

Anthrax

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A serious infection in sheep or cattle, which may be transmitted to humans. Symptoms in humans is a boil which is large and very painful. Also called Wool Sorter's Disease.

Apoplexy

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Hemorrhage into the brain - a stroke.

Arachnoiditis

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Inflammation of the arachnoid membrane covering the brain and spinal cord.

Ascites

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Dropsy of the belly; an abnormal accumulation of fluid in the stomach.

Barber's Itch

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Ring worm of the beard.

Bilious Colic

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Severe pain in the belly.

Bloody Flux or Dysentery

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Inflammation of the large bowels, causing pain in the abdomen and frequent stools containing blood and mucus.

Blue Disease

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Commonly known as cyanosis; a bluish color over the whole body due to poor circulation and insufficient oxygen in the bloodstream; body warmth is reduced; usually fatal.

Brain Fever

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An inflammation of the brain; symptoms includes intense headache, fever, vertigo, intolerance to light or sound.

Bright's Disease

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Inflammation of the kidneys; albumen is in the urine.

Bronchorrhea

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A bronchial flu; excessive discharge of mucus from the lungs.

Bronze John

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Is yellow fever; an acute infectious disease caused by a virus which gets into the body through the bite of an infected mosquito. Symptoms include chills, fever, aches and pains, vomiting, hemorrhage, jaundice, kidney damage and sometimes death.

Brown Tail Rash

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An irritating, itching rash on the skin caused by the hairs of the brown-tail moth.

Chilblain

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Painful sore or swelling of the skin caused by exposure to the cold; associated with burning and itching.

Childbed fever

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An old term for infection of the uterus secondary to childbirth; puerperal fever; septicaemia; blood poisoning during pregnancy.

Cholera

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A serious infectious disease characterized by vomiting, diarrhea, dehydration, cramps, high fever and collapse. Death ensues in 20 to 50 percent of cases.

Cholera Infantum

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A common, noncontagious diarrhea of young children prevailing in summer months.

Cholera Morbus

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A once popular name for an acute gastroenteritis, with diarrhea, cramps and vomiting, occurring in summer or autumn; also called summer cholera or summer complaint.

Clap

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Gonorrhea

Consumption

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An old term for tuberculosis of the lungs.

Costiveness

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Constipation

Crusted Tetter

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Impetigo - A once popular name for an inflammatory disease of the skin, highly contagious.

Devonshire Colic

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Acute abdominal pain; a form of colic experienced with slow lead poisoning.

Dropsy

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An unnatural collection of fluid in any cavity of the body.

Dropsy of the Brain

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Chronic hydrocephalus; abnormal increase of fluid in the brain.

Egyptian chlorosis

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Hookworm

Erysipelas

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An acute, contagious disease, characterized by a special inflammation of the skin. Symptoms are marked by redness and swelling of affected areas.

Fits

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A convulsion; a seizure.

Flux

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Abnormally large discharge of excretions.

Glandular Fever

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An infectious disease of children, developing, as a rule, without premonitory signs, and characterized by slight redness of the throat, high fever, swelling, and tenderness of the lymph-glands of the neck. Today know as Infectious mononucleosis.

Gravel

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"Sand" in the kidneys which is sometimes passed in the urine. This sand is composed of minute particles of kidney stones.

Green Sickness

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Chlorosis; a green tinge to the skin caused by a type of anemia seen most often in young girls or young women.

Grippe or La Grippe

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Influenza; an upper respiratory infection with fever, running nose, sore throat, cough, headache, and aches and pains throughout the body.

Infantile Spinal Paralysis

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Polio

Lead Palsy

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Muscles of the forearm are palsied from lead in the body.

Lumhago

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Lower rheumatic back pain.

Lung Fever

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Pneumonia

Milk Crust

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Small red, itchy pimples on the face or scalp of infants which burst and exclude sticky fluid forming a yellow crust. This may be due to an allergy to milk.

Milk Fever

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An old term for fever occurring following childbirth. It used to be caused by excessive milk in the breast, but is now known to be caused by an infection in the uterus following childbirth.

Milk Leg

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Phlebitis or inflammation in the leg beginning two to seven weeks after giving birth.

Milk Sickness

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Also known as trembles; a disease occurring in some localities of the western United States which affects certain kinds of farm stock. People contract the disease by eating meat or dairy products. Symptoms: vomiting, nausea, peculiar odor to the breath.

Mother's Mark

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The dilation of minute blood-vessels varying in size.

Mortification

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The complete death of a part of the body.

Osmidrosis

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Body odor

Painter's Colic

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Lead poisoning. The name refers to the severe abdominal cramps which sometimes accompany lead poisoning.

Palsy

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Paralysis to a body part.

Pellagra

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A disease caused by eating spoiled maize. Symptoms begin with vomiting and diarrhea, followed by a swollen and sore tongue, and a red, ulcerated mouth, rash on the body, and body scars.

Pessary

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A device worn in the vagina for birth control or used as an aid toward maintaining the normal positions of the uterus and bladder.

Peritonitis

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Infection of the abdominal lining following the rupture of an appendix or other intestinal organ.

Phlebitis

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Inflammation of a vein. Symptoms includes pain, swelling and tenderness in the area. It once was treated by lotions and with leeches.

Piles

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A term meaning hemorrhoid.

Pleurisy

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Inflammation and mucus in the lungs. It is associated with pain, aggravated on by deep breathing or coughing.

Pox

- A small pus-pimple, seen in chickenpox and smallpox. Also an old term meaning syphilis.

Rheumatism

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Inflammation of the joints causing pain, stiffness, or limitation of motion.

Rose-Rash

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Roseola or false measles.

St. Anthony's Fire

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Very Contagious; resulted from lack of personal hygiene. Symptoms included redness, swelling, and burning of the skin. Pus forms after the inflammation. There is pain in joints accompanied by fever, chills, headache, and loss of appetite.

St. Martins's Disease

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Alcoholism

St. Vitus Dance

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Chorea, a disease of the nerves characterized by irregular and involuntary movements of the muscles, of the limbs and face. Sometimes associated with rheumatic fever.

Sciatica

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A condition in which there is severe pain in the lower back and down the back of the thigh and leg.

Scrofula

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Also known as King's Evil; Tuberculosis of the lymph glands in the neck. This occurred from drinking tuberculous milk.

Spotted Fever

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Cerebrospinal Meningitis

Typhus Fever

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Also known as Ship Fever or Putrid Fever; Contagious disease transmitted to man by the bite of lice or fleas. It is characterized by high fever, headache, a body rash, mental confusion and in severe cases, death.

Typhoid Fever

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A disease caused by Salmonella typhosa. It enters the body through infected food, seafood, milk, water or a person with the typhoid germs. Symptoms are high fever, diarrhea, headache, ulcers of the intestine, weakness, hemorrhages and chills.

Uremia

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A serious illness caused by the retention and inability to eliminate urine. Blood is in the urine. Symptoms are nausea, vomiting,

Water Brash

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Pyrosis; heartburn; a burning sensation in the esophagus and stomach, with sour belching of a thin, watery fluid.

Wind Colic

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Pain in the bowels due to their distention with air or gas.

Yellow Fever or Yellow Jack

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An acute infectious disease caused by a bite of an infected mosquito. Symptoms include chills, fever, pains, aches, jaundice, kidney damage, vomiting, uremia and in many cases death.

Rothenberg, Robert E. The New American Medical Dictionary and Health Manual. Cleveland Ohio: The New American Library, Inc., 1974

Dorland's Illustrated Medical Dictionary. 25th Edition. USA: W. B. Saunders Company, 1974

Osler, William. The Principles and Practice of Medicine. New York & London: D. Appleton and Company, 1910

Webster, Noah An American Dictionary of the English Language. Albany, NY: J. B. Lyon Company, 1906

Comments regarding this page to: Deborah Johnson.