80 Old Time Illnesses and Their Current Names

When doing our genealogy research, whether looking at death certificates, newspaper articles, or other sources, we are often faced with different terminology for things.  Nowhere is that more evident than in medical terminology.

Whether the term is written in an old letter, a newspaper article, or an official document, we are often faced with the challenge of finding out what that term means, for our understanding, but more importantly for documenting the cause of death.

I have put together some of the more common terms, some of which were fatal, some not.

• Ablepsy: Blindness
• African Consumption: Tuberculosis
• Ague: Flu-Like Symptoms Likely Caused By Malaria
• Apoplexy: Stroke
• Barrel Fever: Alcoholism
• Bethlehemite: Mentally Ill Person
• Biliousness: Jaundice
• Black Death: Typhus
• Black Dog: Depression
• Black Pox: Smallpox
• Blood Poisoning: Sepsis or Septicemia
• Bloody Flux: Dysentery
• Brain Fever: Sun Stroke
• Breakbone: Dengue Fever
• Bronze John: Yellow Fever
• Camp Fever: Typhus
• Catarrh: Inflammation Of Mucous Membrane\
• Chalkstones: Swelling With Pain
• Change Of Life: Menopause
• Childbed Fever: Infection Following Childbirth
• Chin Cough: Whooping Cough
• Congestive Fever: Malaria
• Consumption: Tuberculosis
• Corruption: Infection
• Coryza: Cold
• Debilitas: Weakness of The Body
• Domestic Malady: Depression or Another Sort of Emotional Breakdown
• Double Personality: Manic Depressive
• Dropsy: Swelling Caused By Fluid Retention
• Dysentery: Inflammation of Intestinal Mucous Membrane
• Dyspepsia: Acid Indigestion
• Enteritis: Intestinal Inflammation
• Extravasated Blood: Ruptured Blood Vessel
• Falling Sickness: Epilepsy
• Fits: Convulsions
• French Disease: Syphilis
• French Pox: Venereal Disease
• Galloping Consumption: Pulmonary Tuberculosis
• Green Sickness: Anemia
• Grip, Gripe Or Grippe: Flu
• Ictus Solis: Sunstroke
• Idiot Savant: Developmentally Delayed and Exceptionally Talented
• Jail Fever: Typhus
• Kings Evil: Scrofula; Swelling of The Neck Glands
• La Grippe: Flu
• Leprosy: Hansens Disease
• Lues Venera: Venereal Disease
• Lumbago: Back Pain
• Lung Fever: Pneumonia
• Mad Cow: Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease
• Mania: Insanity
• Melancholia: Severe Depression
• Milk Leg: Inflammation of Leg
• Mirasmus: Emaciation
• Mormal: Gangrene
• Mortification: Gangrene
• Painters Colic: Exposure to Lead
• Palsy: Problems With Muscle Control, Such as Tremors Or Paralysis
• Pleurisy: Inflammation Of Lung
• Pox: Syphilis
• Putrid Fever: Diphtheria
• Quincy Or Quinsy: Tonsillitis
• Remitting Fever: Malaria
• Retarded: Developmentally or Cognitively Delayed
• Sanguinous Crust: Scab
• Screws: Rheumatism
• Scrumpox: Impetigo
• Senile Gangrene: Hardening of The Arteries
• Ship Fever: Typhus
• Sloes: Milk Sickness
• St Vitus Dance: Chorea
• St. Anthonys Fire: Skin Infection
• Swine Flu: H1N1 Virus
• The Shakes: Parkinson’s Disease
• Ulcus: Ulcer
• Went Under: Had Anesthesia
• Whitlow: Boil
• Winter Fever: Pneumonia
• Yellow Jacket: Yellow Fever
• Scorbutus: Lack of Vitamin C

Below are several sources of terminology equivalences that you can use as reference material.

Medical Terminology Resources

• Historical Names of Diseases and Conditions
• Old Time Disease Names
• Old Time Illnesses, Diseases, and Medical Terms
• Old Time Diseases
• Old Disease Names and Their Modern Definition
• Old Disease Names
• Old Time Medical Terms

Download the Quicksheet PDF

To obtain the one-page Quicksheet pdf for easy reference of these maladies, you can download it by clicking on the Download button below.

For all the previously published Quick Reference Guides, click on QuickSheets. 

Genealogy QuickSheets – Frequently Asked Questions