Cemetery Update Services

Diseases of the Day

 

It interesting and often very sad when the cause of death is listed in the cemetery records.  The origins of this  list of information is unclear but the list will prove very helpful to understand what the people of the time were dealing with.

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Ablepsy – Blindness

Ague – Malarial Fever

Aphtha – The infant disease “thrush”

Apoplexy – Paralysis due to stroke

Atrophy – Wasting away or diminishing in size

Bilious Fever – Typhoid, malaria, hepatitis or fever and bile emesis

Biliousness – Jaundice associated with liver disease

Black plague or death – Bubonic plague

Black pox – Black small pox

Bladder in throat – Diphtheria (Seen on death certificates)

Brain fever – Meningitis

Breakbone – Dengue fever

Bright’s disease – Chronic inflammatory disease of kidneys

Bule – Boil, tumor or swelling

Camp fever – Typhus;  aka: Camp diarrhea

Canine madness – Rabies, hydrophobia

Canker – Ulceration of mouth or lips

Catalepsy – Seizures / trances

Catarrhah – Nose and throat discharge from cold or allergy

Chilblain – Swelling of extremities caused by exposure to cold

Child bed fever – Infection following birth of a child

Chin cough – Whooping cough

Cholera – Acute severe contagious diarrhea with intestinal lining sloughing

Chorea – Disease characterized by convulsions, contortions and dancing

Cold plague – Ague which is characterized by chills

Colic – An abdominal pain and cramping

Consumption – Tuberculosis

Cramp colic – Appendicitis

Croup – Laryngitis, diphtheria, or strep throat

Decrepitude – Feebleness due to old age

Dentition – Cutting of teeth

Diary fever – A fever that lasts one day

Diphtheria – Contagious disease of the throat

Dropsy – Edema (swelling), often caused by kidney or heart disease

Dropsy of the Brain – Encephalitis

Dyspepsia – Indigestion and heartburn.  Heart attack symptoms

Encephalitis – Swelling of brain; aka: sleeping sickness

Enteric fever – Typhoid fever

Enterocolitis – Inflammation of the intestines

Falling sickness – Epilepsy

Fits – Sudden attack or seizure of muscle activity

Glandular fever – Mononucleosis

Green fever – sickness – Anemia

Grippe/grip – Influenza like symptoms

Grocer’s itch – Skin disease caused by mites in sugar or flour

Infantile paralysis – Polio

Jail fever – Typhus

Jaundice – Condition caused by blockage of intestines

King’s evil – Tuberculosis of neck and lymph glands

Lockjaw – Tetanus or infectious disease affecting the muscles of the neck and jaw.

Long sickness – Tuberculosis

Lumbago – Back pain

Lung fever – Pneumonia

Lung sickness – Tuberculosis

Mania – Insanity

Meningitis – Inflamations of brain or spinal cord

Miasma – Poisonous vapors thought to infect the air

Milk fever – Disease from drinking contaminated milk, like brucellosis

Milk sickness – Disease from milk of cattle which had eaten poisonous weeds

Nervous prostration – Extreme exhaustion from inability to control physical and mental activities

Palsy – Paralysis or uncontrolled movement of controlled muscles

Paroxysm – Convulsion

Phthisis – Chronic wasting away or a name for tuberculosis

Pleurisy – Any pain in the chest area with each breath

Puerperal fever – Elevated temperature after giving birth to an infant

Putrid fever – Diphtheria

Quinsy – Tonsillitis

Remitting fever – Malaria

Rheumatism – Any disorder associated with pain in joints

Rose cold – Hay fever or nasal symptoms of an allergy

Rubella – German measles

Scarlatina – Scarlet fever

Scarlet fever – A disease characterized by a red rash

Sciatica – Rheumatism in the hips

Scurvy – Lack of vitamin C

Ship fever – Typhus

Small pox – Contagious disease with fever and blisters

Summer complaint – Diarrhea, usually in infants caused by spoiled milk

Swamp sickness – Could be malaria, typhoid or encephalitis

Tetanus – Characterized by high fever, headache and dizziness

Thrush – Childhood disease characterized by spots on mouth, lips and throat

Tick fever – Rocky Mountain spotted fever

Trench mouth – Painful ulcers found along gum line

Variola – Smallpox

Winter fever - Pneumonia


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