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.
I have had this for several years. This could be updated. Thanks
MEDICAL TERMS AND DEFINITIONS
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.
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Michael O. Reck - 2434 Forest Home Ave - Riverside, Oh. -45404-2410
E-mail: moreck(a)juno.com - moreck(a)netzero.net
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