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ABCESS - 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.
ABLEPSIA - blindness 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. AGLUTITION - inability to swallow, frequently found on death certificates
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 hard tumor or swelling on the left side of the abdomen, lower than the false rib, resulting from enlargement of the spleen or liver, and supposed to be the effect of intermitting fevers [A form of enlargement of the spleen, resulting from the action of malaria on the system.] AMERICAN PLAGUE - See yellow fever ANASARCA - Generalized massive dropsy. See dropsy. ANCOME - [whitlow] an ulcerous swelling, a boil APHTHAE - See thrush. APTHOUS STOMATITIS - See canker. APOPLEXY - paralysis due to stroke ASCITES - See dropsy. ASTHENIA - See debility.
BAD BLOOD - Syphilis
BARREL FEVER - sickness produced by immoderate drinking
BILIOUS FEVER - [1] fever caused by liver disorder [2] A term loosely applied to certain enteric (intestinal) and malarial fevers. BILIOUSNESS - A complex of symptoms comprising nausea, abdominal discomfort, headache, and constipation; formerly attributed to excessive secretion of bile from the liver. [2] liver disease symptoms; Bilious is defined as having an undue amount of bile. Bilious fever is defined as a fever _supposed_ to be caused by a liver disorder. (It probably also has something to do with gallbladder disease.) BLACK DEATH - typhus
BLACK LUNG - disease from breathing coal dust
BLOODY FLUX - dysentery
BLOOD
POISONING
- Septicemia (overwhelming bacterial
infection of the bloodstream.) BLOODY SWEAT - a sweat accompanied by a discharge of blood 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. BRIGHT'S DISEASE - inflamation of the kidneys - in its acute form, it is called nephritis 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. CANINE MADNESS - Hydrophobia [morbid fear of water] CANKER - An ulcerous sore of the mouth and lips, not considered fatal today. Synonym: aphthous stomatitis. See CANCRUM OTIS. CARCINOMA - See CANCER. CATALEPSY - seizures/trances
CHILBLAIN - an inflammatory swelling of the hands and feet caused by exposure to cold 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. CHIN COUGH - [WHOOPING COUGH] characterized by breathing difficulties, and in its worst stage, convulsions
CHLOROSIS - iron deficiency anemia, also a number of confounding diseases like leukemia that were not recognized at the time. 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. [2] an acute infectious disease characterized
by severe diarrhea, vomiting, muscle cramps and prostration. The severe
dehydration 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. COMMOTION - Concussion 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. CONGESTIVE FEVER - malaria
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. CRAMP COLIC - appendicitis CRETINISM -
Hypothyroidism, congential
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 infectious disease which could be spread by infected milk, characterized by the production of a systemic toxin and the formation of a false membrane on the lining of the mucous membrane of the throat and other respiratory passages, causing difficulty in breathing, high fever, and weakness. [2] 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.
DOCK FEVER - yellow fever
DROPSY - an abnormal
collection of fluid in the tissues and cavities of the body [2] 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. [3] Congestive heart failure -taken from an old "Cyclopedic
Medical Dictionary" - 'dropsy; from Hydrops, a condition rather than a disease.
Morbid accumulation of water in the tissues and cavities.' It goes on DROPSY OF THE BRAIN - encephalitis
DYSENTERY - inflammation of intestinal membrane [2] 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.
DYSPEPSIA - bad digestion usually involving weakness, loss of appetite, and depression
DYSURY - difficulty in discharging urine, accompanied by pain and a sensation of heat
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.
EDEMA - swelling of tissues 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. ENTERITIS - Inflammation of the intestines, could also take the form of enteric fever (typhoid) 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. ERYSIPHELAS - [Saint Anthony's Fire] a skin disease caused by strep infection which devastates the blood [2] 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).
EXCRESCENCE - an unnatural or disfiguring outgrowth of the skin
FALLING SICKNESS - Epilepsy
FATTY LIVER - Cirrhosis
FLUX - the drainage or discharge of liquid from a body cavity (See DYSENTERY.) FURUNCLE - See BOIL
GALLOPING CONSUMPTION - pulmonary tuberculosis
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.
GLANDULAR FEVER - Mononucleosis
GLEET - See CATARRH.
GOITER - [struma]; a noncancerous enlargement of the thyroid gland, visible as a swelling at the front of the neck, that is often associated with iodine deficiency
GOUT - a disturbance of uric-acid metabolism occurring predominantly in males, characterized by painful inflammation of the joints, especially of the feet and hands
GRAVE'S DISEASE - disorder of the thyroid gland
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.
GREEN SICKNESS - [CHLOROSIS] anemia; a disease of young women giving the complexion a greenish tinge
GROCER'S ITCH - a cutaneous disease caused by mites in sugar and flour
GRIPE / LA GRIPPE - an old term for influenza
HEAT SICKNESS - a condition marked especially by cessation of sweating and extremely high body temperature, caused by a loss of salt from the body HECTIC FEVER - A daily recurring fever with profound sweating, chills, and flushed appearance- often associated with pulmonary tuberculosis or septic poisoning. HEMATEMESIS - vomiting blood
HEMATURIA - a discharge of bloody urine
HEMIPHLEGY - a palsy or paralysis that affects one side of the body 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. 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. JAUNDICE - a condition caused by obstruction of bile and characterized by yellowness of the skin, fluids and tissues, and by constipation, loss of appetite, and weakness [2] 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.
LUES VENERA - venereal disease
LUMBAGO - a pain in the loins and small of the back, such as precedes certain fevers
LUNG FEVER - pneumonia
LUNG SICKNESS - tuberculosis
MARASMUS - progressive emaciation, usually due to severe malnutrition or protracted intestinal disorders [2] 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.
MEMBRANOUS CROUP - diphtheria 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. MILKSICK - not actually a disease, but a form of poisoning caused by cows ingesting the leaves of the white snakeroot plant and passing along its toxin in their milk 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. MORMAL - Gangrene MORSAL - Gangrene
NEPHRITIS - inflammation of the kidneys
NEURALGIA - an affection of one or more nerves causing intermittent but frequent pains [2] 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.
NEURASTHENIA - neurotic condition characaterized by worry, disturbances of digestion and circulation and attributed to emotional conflict and feelings of inferiority
PALSY - the loss or defect of the power of voluntary muscular motion in all or part of the body; paralysis PARISTHMITIS - See QUINSY. PETECHIAL FEVER - See TYPHUS. PHRENITIS - formerly infammation of the brain, with acute fever and delirium; infammation of the diaphragm PHTHISIS - See CONSUMPTION. PLAGUE/BLACK DEATH - Bubonic Plague PLEURISY - inflammation of the membrane that covers the inside of the thorax, accompanied with fever, pain and cough [2] 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. PODAGRA - Gout POTTS DISEASE - Tuberculosis of the spinal vertebrae POX - syphilis
PUERPERAL FEVER - [childbed fever] septic poisoning which sometimes followed the birth of a child 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 - diptheria (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 / QUINCY - severe attack of tonsilitis which resulted in abscess near the tonsils [2] 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. [3] another name for tonsillitis; acute inflammation of the tonsil (& surrounding tissue), usually forming an abscess.
RHEUMATISM - a painful disease affecting muscles and joints, chiefly the larger joints
RICKETS - a disease of the skeletal system resulting from a deficiency of calcium or vitamin D in the diet, or from lack of sunlight
SCARLATINA - scarlet fever, commonly referred to as the canker rash; [2] 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.
SCARLET FEVER - a disease in which the body is covered with a red rash first appearing on the neck and breast, and accompanied by a sore throat
SCIATICA - rheumatism in the hip
SCOTOMY - dizziness or nausea, with dimness of sight
SCRIVENER'S PALSY - writer's cramp
SCROFULA - a disease, called the King's Evil, characterized by tumors in the glands of the neck; tuberculosis of lymph glands [2] 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.
SCRUMPOX - [impetigo] a pustular disease of the skin
SCURVY - a disease characterized by great dibility, a pale bloated face, and bleeding spongy gums, usually suffered by people living confined or on salted meats without fresh vegetables SEPTIC - Infected, a condition of local or generalized invasion of the body by disease-causing microorganisms (germs) or their toxins. SEPTICEMIA - blood poisoning
SHIP'S FEVER - typhus SOFTENING OF THE BRAIN - cerebral hemorrhage/stroke SPOTTED FEVER - See TYPHUS. ST. VITUS DANCE - [CHOREA] the dancing madness; an epidemic characterized by contortions, convulsions and dancing 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. SWEATING SICKNESS - an acute, infectious, rapidly fatal disease epidemic in Egland in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries
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 STOMATITUS. 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 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. ULCERATION - loss of the surface covering, such as of skin or the mucous lining, of the intestine VARIOLA - smallpox 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. VENESECTION - the opening of a vein for letting blood; phlebotomy
WHITLOW - an ulcerous swelling, a boil [Also ANCOME]
WHOOPING COUGH - [PERTUSSIS or CHIN COUGH] a highly contagious disease of the respiratory system, usually affecting children, that is characterized in its advanced stage by spasms of coughing interspersed with deep, noisy inspirations
WINTER FEVER - pneumonia 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. YELLOW JACKET - yellow fever
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