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From: "Victoria L. McCarty" <>
Subject: Re: [PALANCAS-L] "Old Diseases" Part 1 (revised list)
Date: Sun, 2 Apr 2000 22:39:29 -0700
References: <20000401.075257.-3641205.0.moreck@juno.com>



----- Original Message -----
From: Michael O RECK <>
To: <>
Sent: Saturday, April 01, 2000 5:45 AM
Subject: [PALANCAS-L] "Old Diseases" Part 1 (revised list)


> To All:
>
> I finally found my copy of "Old Diseases". I will break this down in
> several messages. I found this years ago, and thought this was very
> helpful when I was collecting information on death certificates.
>
>
>
> From: Derick Hartshorn Date: 09 Oct 95 12:46:48
> To: All Msg#: 576
> Subj.: old diseases revisited 01
> Area: Nat'l Genealogy Conf.
>
> 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.
>
>
> 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.
>
> 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.
>
> Cholera infantum. A common, noncontagious diarrhea of young children,
> occurring in summer or autumn. In the nineteenth century it was
> considered indigenous to the United States; was prevalent during the
> hot weather in most of the towns of the middle and southern states, as
> well as many western areas; and was characterized by gastric pain,
> vomiting, purgation, fever, and prostration. It was common among the
> poor and in hand?fed babies. Death frequently occurred in three to
> five days. Synonyms: summer complaint, weaning brash, water gripes,
> choleric fever of children, cholera morbus.
>
> 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.
>
> 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.
>
> 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.
>
> Croup. Any obstructive condition of the larynx (voice box) or trachea
> (windpipe), characterized by a hoarse, barking cough and difficult
> breathing occurring chiefly in infants and children. The obstruction
> could be caused by allergy, a foreign body, infection, or new growth
> (tumor). In the early?nineteenth century it was called cynanche
> trachealis. The crouping noise was similar to the sound emitted by a
> chicken affected with the pip, which in some parts of Scotland was
> called roup; hence, probably, the term croup. Synonyms: roup, hives,
> choak, stuffing, rising of the lights.
>
> 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 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.
>
> Dropsy. 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.
>
> Dysentery. 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.
>
> 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.
>
> 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.
>
> 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.
>
> Erysipelas. 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).
>
> Flux. See dysentery.
>
> (continued in next message)
>
>
> Michael O. Reck
> E-mail: -OR-
>
> Researching:
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> -KOHR-LESHER-MILLER-MUNCY-PEARSON-RANDOLPH-RECK-REIGLE-SHOOK-STOEVER-URME
> Y-ZELLER
>
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