CABARRUS COUNTY
NORTH CAROLINA


American History & Genealogy Project

DICTIONARIES: OLD MEDICAL TERMS

A

Ablepsy: blindness

Ague: malarial fever

American Plague: yellow fever

Anasarca: generalized massive edema

Aphonia: laryngitis

Aphtha: infant disease "thrush"

Apoplexy: paralysis due to stroke

Asphycsia/Asphicsia: cyanotic and lack of oxygen

Atrophy: wasting away or diminishing in size

B

Bad Blood: syphilis

Bilious Fever: typhoid, malaria, hepatitis or elevated temperature and bile emesis

Biliousness: jaundice associated with liver disease

Black Fever: acute infection with high temperature and dark red skin lesions and high mortality rate.

Black Plague: bubonic plague

Black Pox: black small pox

Black Vomit: vomiting old black blood due to ulcers or yellow fever

Blackwater Fever: dark urine associated with high temperature

Bladder in Throat: diphtheria

Blood Poisoning: bacterial infection; septicemia

Bloody Flux: bloody stools

Bloody Sweat: sweating sickness

Bone Shave: sciatica

Brain Fever: meningitis

Breakbone: dengue fever

Bright's Disease: chronic inflamatory disease of kidneys

Bronze John: yellow fever

Bule: boil, tumor or swelling

Source: Provided by Dan Burrows

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