Old Disease Names
& Their Modern Definitions

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Acute Mania - severe insanity
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Addison's Disease - a destructive disease marked by weakness, loss
of weight, low blood pressure, gastrointestinal disturbances, and brownish
pigmentation of the skin and mucous membranes.
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Aphonia - laryngitis
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Apoplexy - stroke
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Ague - used to define the recurring fever & chills of malarial
infection
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Biliousness - jaundice or other symptoms associated with liver disease
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Black Jaundice (Wiel's Disease) - Black jaundice is a common term
for Wiel's Disease. It is quite common in northeast England near mines,
farms and sewage and floats about in water. It is caused by a micro-organism
and thus is a bacterial infection (of the liver) and not a virus, as in
hepatitis. It is carried by rats and secreted in their urine. It is usually
not fatal, in present time, to humans. It is, however, rapidly fatal to
dogs and cats, who can eventually gain a resistance, but either way can
pass it on.
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Bright's Disease - Bright's Disease is a catch-all for kidney diseases/disorders
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Camp Fever - typhus
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Canine Madness - hydrophobia
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Carditis - inflammation of the heart wall
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Catarrh - inflammation of mucous membrane
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Chlorosis - iron deficency anemia
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Chorea (St. Vitus' Dance) - nervous disorder
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Commotion - Concussion
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Consumption - tuberculosis
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Corruption - infection
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Coryza - a cold
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Costiveness - constipation
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Cramp Colic - appendicitis
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Croup - spasmodic laryngitis esp. of infants, marked by episodes
of difficult breathing and hoarse metallic cough
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Death from "teething" - tooth infections with inflammation and cellulitis
were clearly important causes of illness and death before there was adequate
dentistry.
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Domestic Illness - polite way of saying mental breakdown, depression,
Alzheimers, Parkinson's, or the after effects of a stroke or any illness
that kept a person housebound and probably in need of nursing support.
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Dropsy - edema (swelling), often caused by kidney or heart disease.
Dropsy would be called congestive heart failure today. It is an accumulation
of fluid around the heart, for a variety of complex reasons, and one treatment
is administration of digitalis (foxglove leaves).
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Dyspepsia - acid indigestion
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Extravastaed blood - rupture of a blood vessel
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Falling Sickness - epilepsy
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Flux of Humour - circulation
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French Pox - venereal disease a
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Gout - any inflammation, not just in a joint or extremity, caused
by the formation of crystals of oxalic acid when it accumulates in the
body. It most often occurs in joints where circulation is poor, and can
even cause gallstones or kidney stones. Gout is a disease caused by a buildup
of urate or uric acid in the body, which crystallizes out in areas without
much rapid blood flow and can cause damage when, for example a toe is stubbed.
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Green Sickness - anemia
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Hip Gout - osteomylitis
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Jail Fever - typhus
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King's Evil (Scrofula) - tubercular infection of the throat lymph
glands
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La Grippe - flu
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Lues - syphilis.
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Lues Venera - venereal disease
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Lumbago - back pain
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Lung Fever - pneumonia
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Lung Sickness - tuberculosis
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Mania - insanity
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Marasmus - progressive emaciation
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Membranous Croup - hoarse cough
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Milk Leg - a painful swelling of the leg beginning at the ankle
and ascending, or at the groin and extending down the thigh. It's usual
cause is infection after labor.
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Mortification - infection
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Neurasthenia - neurotic condition
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Nostalgia - homesickness
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Pott's Disease - tuberculosis of the spine with destruction of the
bone resulting in curvature of the spine
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Protein Disease - a once relatively common childhood kidney disease
that causes the kidney to leak protein. This is a secondary allergic reaction
to certain kinds of strep infections.
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Putrid Fever -
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Quinsy -
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Remitting Fever - malaria
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Sanguineous Crust - scab
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Screws - rheumatism
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Scrofula - see King's Evil
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Septicemia - blood poisoning
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Ship's Fever - typhus
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Strangery - rupture
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Summer Complaint - dysentery or baby diarrhea caused by spoiled milk
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Venesection (Bleeding Venesection) - bleeding
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