Cacatoria

An epithet given by Sylvius to a kind of intermittent fever, attended with copious stools. [Hooper1829]

Diarrhoea. [Dunglison1868]

Cachaemia

A degenerated or poisoned condition of the blood. [Webster]

Cachexia

A bad habit of body, known by a depraved or vitiated state of the solids and fluids. [Hooper1829].

A condition in which the system of nutrition is evidently depraved. A bad habit of body, chiefly the result of scorbutic, cancerous, tuberculous or venereal diseases when in their advanced stages. [Dunglison1874].

A condition of ill health and impairment of nutrition due to impoverishment of the blood, esp. when caused by a specific morbid process (as cancer or tubercle). [Webster1913].

Weight loss, wasting of muscle, loss of appetite, and general debility that can occur during a chronic disease. [Heritage].

Any general reduction in vitality and strength of body and mind resulting from a debilitating chronic disease (syn: cachexy, wasting). [Wordnet]

Cachexy

Cachexia

Cacochymie

An unhealthy state of the body. [Buchan1798]

Cacogastric

Troubled with bad digestion. [Webster1913]

Cacosphyxia

Bad state of Pulse. -Galen [Dunglison1855]

Caddy Stools

The evacuations in yellow fever, which resemble fine, dark, sandy mud. [Appleton1904]

Caducity

The portion of human life which is comprised generally between 70 and 80 years. The age which precedes decrepitude. It is so termed in consequence of the limbs not usually possessing sufficient strength to support the body. [Dunglison1855]

Calculus / Calculi

An abnormal concretion in the body usually formed of mineral salts and found in the gallbladder, kidney, or urinary bladder, for example. Gravel. [Dorland]

Calenture / Calentura

A febrile delirium, said to be peculiar to sailors, wherein they imagine the sea to be green fields and will throw themselves into it if not restrained. [Hooper1829]

A violent fever, attended with delirium, incident to persons in hot countries. Under its influence it is said that sailors imagine the sea to be green fields, and will throw themselves into it, if not restrained. [Hoblyn1855]

Fever. The term was used by the old Spanish navigators to denote any form of fever with delirium observed in the tropics, and from them Sauvages adopted it as the name of a special disease (which has been described as peculiar to mariners and characterized by a particular form of delirium in which the patient, unless prevented, will jump into the sea, thinking that he is walking into green fields); but its use in the sense has been discarded. [Applton1904].

A name formerly given to various fevers occurring in tropics; esp. to a form of furious delirium accompanied by fever, among sailors, which sometimes led the affected person to imagine the sea to be a green field, and to throw himself into it. [Webster1913]

Camp Fever

This term was used for all of the continuing fevers experienced by the army: Typhoid Fever, Malarial Remittent Fever, and Typho-malarial Fever. The last named is a combination of elements from the first two diseases. This combination, Typho-malarial Fever, was the characteristic "camp fever" during the Civil War. Symptoms included: a pronounced chill followed by an intermittent fever, abdominal tenderness and nausea, general debility, diarrhea, retention of urine, and furring of the tongue. Typhus castrensis in Latin. [CivilWarMed]

Cancer

Formerly, any malignant growth, esp. one attended with great pain and ulceration, with cachexia and progressive emaciation. It was so called, perhaps, from the great veins which surround it, compared by the ancients to the claws of a crab. The term is now restricted to such a growth made up of aggregations of epithelial cells, either without support or embedded in the meshes of a trabecular framework. Note: Four kinds of cancers are recognized: (1) {Epithelial cancer, or Epithelioma}, in which there is no trabecular framework. See {Epithelioma}. (2) {Scirrhous cancer, or Hard cancer}, in which the framework predominates, and the tumor is of hard consistence and slow growth. (3) {Encephaloid, Medullary, or Soft cancer}, in which the cellular element predominates, and the tumor is soft, grows rapidly, and often ulcerates. (4) {Colloid cancer}, in which the cancerous structure becomes gelatinous. The last three varieties are also called {carcinoma}. [Webster1913].

Any malignant growth or tumor caused by abnormal and uncontrolled cell division; it may spread to other parts of the body through the lymphatic system or the blood stream. [Wordnet]

Information sheet from NYS Dept of Health

Cancrum Oris

Canker of the mouth; a fretted ulceration of the gums. [Hooper1829]

Canker; a fetid ulcer, with jagged edges, of the gums and inside of the lips and cheeks, attended with copious flow of offensive saliva. It occurs pricipally in children. [Hoblyn1855]

A deep, foul, fetid, irregular ulcer inside the lips and cheeks; often attended with the discharge of blood. [Thomas1875]

A fetid ulcer of the gums and cheeks, of gangrenous character, chiefly occurring in children. [Cleaveland1886]

Noma of the oral tissues called also gangrenous stomatitis. [Merriam]

Candidiasis

Infection with a fungus of the genus Candida, especially C. albicans, that usually occurs in the skin and mucous membranes of the mouth, respiratory tract, or vagina but may invade the bloodstream, especially in immunocompromised individuals. Also called candidosis, moniliasis. [Heritage]

Canker

A corroding or sloughing ulcer; esp. a spreading gangrenous ulcer or collection of ulcers in or about the mouth; -- called also water canker, canker of the mouth, and noma. [Webster1913]

Canker of the Mouth

Cancer Aquaticus

Canker Rash

A form of scarlet fever characterized by ulcerated or putrid sore throat. [Webster]

Canker Sore

A small ulcer crater in the lining of the mouth that is often painful and very sensitive. Also known as an aphthous ulcer. Canker sores are one of the most common problems that occur in the mouth. About 20% of the population has canker sores at any given time. Canker sores typically last for 10-14 days and they heal without leaving a scar. The word "canker" comes from the Latin "cancer" for crab. (In Latin "cancer" was once pronounced kanker from which came canker). Chronic ulcers might seem as hard as a crab shell. [Medicinenet]

Canton Disease

Syphilis. The Chinese called it the Canton disease.

Carcarus

A fever in which the patient has a continual horror and trembling, with an unceasing sounding in his ears. [Hooper1829]

Carcinoma

A malignant new growth made up of epithelial cells tending to infiltrate the surrounding tissues and give rise to metastases. [Dorland]

Cardiac Insufficiency

Inadequate blood flow to the heart muscles; can cause angina pectoris (syn: coronary insufficiency) [Wordnet]

Cardiagra

Gout or pain of the heart. [Dunglison1868]

Cardialgia

Properly, neuralgia of the stomach, but often applied to various forms of gastric pain and to pyrosis. [Appleton1904]

Obsolete term for pyrosis. [CancerWEB]

Cardioptosis

A condition in which the heart is unduly movable and displaced downward. [CancerWEB]

Carditis

Inflammation of the heart

Caries

A rottenness of the bone. [Buchan1798]

Ulceration of the bones. [Hoblyn1855]

A disease of bones, analogous to ulceration of the soft parts. [Thomas1875]

Ulceration of bone; a process in which bone disintegrates and is carried away piecemeal, as distinguished from necrosis, in which it dies in masses. [Dorland]

Castilian Disease

Syphilis. The Portuguese called it the Castilian disease.

Catalepsy

A trancelike state with loss of voluntary motion and failure to react to stimuli. [Wordnet]

Cataplexy

A sudden loss of muscle tone and strength, usually caused by an extreme emotional stimulus. [Heritage]

Cataract

Clouding of the lens of the eye. In people with diabetes, this condition is sometimes referred to as "sugar cataract." [HyperBiology]

Catarrh

An inflammatory affection of any mucous membrane, in which there are congestion, swelling, and an alteration in the quantity and quality of mucus secreted; as, catarrh of the stomach; catarrh of the bladder. Note: In America, the term catarrh is applied especially to a chronic inflammation of, and hyper secretion from, the membranes of the nose or air passages; in England, to an acute influenza, resulting in a cold, and attended with cough, thirst, lassitude, and watery eyes; also, to the cold itself. [Webster1913].

Inflammation of mucous membranes, especially of the nose and throat. [Heritage].

"catarrh" was first used: sometime in the early 15th century. [Webster]

Example from a Civil War Hospital Record:

Autumnal Catarrh

An affection of the mucous membrane of the eyes, nose, and upper-air passages, characterized by coryza, laryngeal irritation, and asthma, and occurring during the summer months, usually August and September, and disappearing with the first heavy frost. [Thomas1907]

Catarrhal Fever

A fever, either typhoid, nervous, or synochal, attended with symptoms of catarrh. [Hooper1843].

Old term for the group of respiratory tract diseases including the common cold, influenza, and lobular and lobar pneumonia. [CancerWEB]

Epidemic Catarrh

Influenza

Pulmonary Catarrh

Bronchitis

Suffocative Catarrh

A severe laryngitis or bronchitis producing symptoms of suffocation. [Appleton1904]

Summer Catarrh

Hay Fever

Cauliflower Excrescence

A disease of the os uteri; supposed by Gooch to be encephalesis. [Hoblyn1855]

An excrescence, which appears about the origin of the mucous membranes, chiefly about the anus and vulva, and which resembles, in appearance, the head of the cauliflower. It is often syphilitic in its character. [Dunglison1874]

Cellulitis

Ethmyphitis. A diseased condition of the subcutaneous areolar tissue and connective tissue, presenting œdema, swelling, hardness, bogginess, fluctuation, suppuration, and sometimes sloughing. It is usually preceded by a wound, such as the bite of an animal, or an infected lesion of some sort. A dissection wound is a common type. The pain is severe, and there are generally somewhat grave constitutional symptoms, as fever, severe headache,  nausea, prostration, loss of appetite, and general weakness. Salines, iron, and sometimes stimulants are useful, with incisions to relieve tension or to let out the products of suppuration. [New International Encyclopedia 1904]

An inflammation of the cellular or areolar tissue, esp. of

that lying immediately beneath the skin. [Webster1913]

Cellulitis is a spreading infection of connective tissues, usually caused by streptococci bacteria. [Biology Dictionary]

An inflammation of body tissue (especially that below the skin) characterized by fever and swelling and redness and pain. [Wordnet]

Cephalaemia

Congestion, active or passive, of the brain. [CancerWEB]

Cephalgia / Cephalalgia

Headache

Cephalitis

Inflammation of the brain. Encephalitis. [Dunglison1868]

Cerebritis

Inflammation of the cerebrum.

Cerebro-Spinal Fever

A dangerous epidemic, and endemic, febrile disease, characterized by inflammation of the membranes of the brain and spinal cord, giving rise to severe headaches, tenderness of the back of the neck, paralysis of the ocular muscles, etc. It is sometimes marked by a cutaneous eruption, when it is often called spotted fever. It is not contagious. Meningitis. [Webster]

Chagres Fever

A form of malarial fever occurring along the Chagres River, Panama. [Webster]

Chalkstone

A chalklike concretion, consisting mainly of urate of sodium, found in and about the small joints, in the external ear, and in other situations, in hose affected with gout; a tophus. [Webster1913]

Chancre

A sore or ulcer arising from the direct application of the syphilitic poison. [Thomas1875]

A venereal sore or ulcer; specifically, the initial lesion of true syphilis, whether forming a distinct ulcer or not; -- called also hard chancre, indurated chancre, and Hunterian chancre. [Webster]

Chancroid

A soft, highly infectious, nonsyphilitic venereal ulcer of the genital region caused by the bacillus Hemophilus ducreyi. Also called soft chancre. [Heritage]

Information sheet from NYS Dept of Health

Change of Life

Critical Age. That period of female life when the catamenia become irregular, and ultimately cease. It is often attended with serious constitutional disturbance, and is sometimes the commencement of fatal diseases. [Thomas1875]

The period in the life of a woman when menstruation and the capacity for conception cease, usually occurring between forty-five and fifty years of age. [Webster]

Chichism

Pellagra

Chicken breast

Pigeon Breast

Chicken Pox

A popular name of a species of varicella. [Hoblyn1855]

 

A mild, eruptive disease, generally attacking children only; varicella. [Webster1913].

 

An acute contagious disease, primarily of children, that is caused by the varicella-zoster virus and characterized by skin eruptions, slight fever, and malaise. Also called varicella. [Heritage]

 

Fact sheet from CDC

Information Card from the CDC

Information sheet from NYS Dept of Health

Chiggers

A skin infestation, common in the southern United States, caused by the larva of the red mite (harvest mite). Features include an itchy red rash to the waist, ankle and skin folds. No specific treatment is necessary as the rash will resolve spontaneously. Antihistamines can be used to control itching. [CancerWEB]

Chilblain

A kibe or Pernio. Chilblains are painful inflammatory swellings, of a deep purple or leaden colour, to which the fingers, toes, heels, and other extreme parts of the body are subject, on being exposed to a severe degree of cold. [Hooper1829]

An erythematous inflammation of the feet, hands, etc. occasioned by cold. It is very common in youth. It is apt to degenerate into painful, indolent ulcerations, called Kibes, see Mules. [Dunglison1874]

An inflammation followed by itchy irritation on the hands, feet, or ears, resulting from exposure to moist cold. [American Heritage]

No, chilblains (pernio) is not the same as frostbite. Chilblains is inflammation of the small blood vessels in the skin in response to cold but above-freezing temperatures. This results in red, swollen skin — usually on the face, ears, fingers and toes — which appears several hours after exposure to cold. You may also experience an itchy, burning sensation in the affected skin. Sometimes chilblains progresses to blisters and even open sores. [Mayoclinic]

Child Bed Fever

The most fatal disorder consequent upon delivery is the puerperal, or child-bed fever. It begins, like most other fevers, with a cold or shivering fit, which is succeeded by restlessness, pain of the head, great sickness at stomach, and bilious vomiting. The pulse is generally quick, the tongue dry, and there is a remarkable depression of spirits and loss of strength. A great pain is usually felt in the back, hips, and region of the womb; a sudden change in the quantity or quality of the lochia also takes place; and the patient is frequently troubled with a tenesmus, or constant inclination to go to stool. The urine, which is very high-colored, is discharged in small quantity, and generally with pain. The belly sometimes swells to a considerable bulk, and becomes susceptible of pain from the slightest touch. When the fever has continued for a few days, the symptoms of inflammation usually subside, and the disease acquires a more putrid form. At this period, if not sooner, a bilious or putrid looseness, of an obstinate and dangerous nature, comes on, and accompanies the disease through all its future progress. [Buchan1785].

Puerperal fever; and often called peritoneal fever. [Hoblyn1855]

Fever due to an infection usually of the placental site within the uterus. The fever is also called childbirth fever or puerperal fever. If the infection involves the bloodstream, it constitutes puerperal sepsis. In Latin a "puerpera" is a woman in childbirth since "puer" means child and "parere" means to give birth. The puerperium is the time immediately after the delivery of a baby. [Medicinenet]

Childbirth

A cause given for many female deaths of the nineteenth century. Almost all babies were born in homes and usually were delivered by a family member or midwife; thus infection and lack of medical skill were often the actual causes of death. [NGSQ1988]

Example from an 1852 death certificate from England:

Childcrowing

The crowing noise made by children affected with spasm of the laryngeal muscles; false croup. Spasmodic Croup. [Webster]

Chills

Chills & Fever

Chills & Fever

Malarial Fever

Chin Cough

Pertussis, Whooping cough.

Chinese Disease

Syphilis. The Japanese called it either the Portuguese or Chinese disease.

Chiragra

Gout in the hand.

Chloasma

A patchy brown or dark brown skin discoloration that usually occurs on a woman's faces and may result from hormonal changes, as in pregnancy. [Heritage]

Chlorosis

A form of anemia observed mostly in pubescent girls in whom menstruation has not become regularly established, and occasionally in boys at about the period of puberty. The liquor sanguine is redundant and the blood corpuscles are decreased in number; anemic murmurs are audible in the large superficial veins, and the action of the heart may be irregular and excessive; the complexion becomes very pale and subsequently greenish; the appetite is defective or depraved; the tissues are flabby; and there is a general feeling of lassitude and despondency. There may be headache, vertigo, disorders of sensibility, and affections of various mucous membranes. [Appleton1904].

A form of primary anemia affecting mostly girls at the period of puberty or early womanhood, and characterized by a marked deficiency of hemoglobin in the red corpuscles; Green Sickness. [CancerWEB]

Choak

Cynanche Trachealis

Chock

The Croup (from the west coast of Scotland)

Chocolate Cyst

Cyst of the ovary with intracavitary hemorrhage and formation of a haematoma containing old brown blood; often seen with endometriosis of the ovary but occasionally with other types of cyst's. [CancerWEB]

Choix Fever

Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever

Cholelithiasis

The presence or formation of gallstones in the gallbladder or bile ducts. [Heritage]

Cholera

Any disease characterized by repeated simultaneous purging and vomiting, with painful spasms of the stomach and bowels and occasional cramps of the external muscles; as commonly used, Asiatic cholera. [Appleton1904].

 

A malignant and rapidly fatal disease, originating in Asia and frequently epidemic in the more filthy sections of other lands, to which the germ or specific poison may have been carried. It is characterized by diarrhea, rice-water evacuations, vomiting, cramps, pinched expression, and lividity, rapidly passing into a state of collapse, followed by death, or by a stage of reaction of fever. [Webster].

 

"cholera" was first used: 14th century. [Webster].

 

Fact sheet from CDC

Information sheet from NYS Dept of Health

Fact sheet from WHO

Example from an 1850 Mortality Schedule from Chicago:

Algid Cholera

Asiatic Cholera.

Algid: chilly; "a person who is algid is marked by prostration and has cold clammy skin and low blood pressure" [Wordnet]

Asiatic Cholera

A remarkable epidemic disease, consisting in the malignant form of cholera, in which all of the symptoms are much more severe and rapid in their prograss to a too generally fatal issue. [Thomas1875]

An acute infectious disease indigenous to India, characterized by vomiting and purging; the discharges resembling rice water; by painful cramps; and by the early occurrence of collapse with suppression of urine and a peculiar coldness of breadth. [Appleton1904]

Bilious Cholera

Copious and frequent vomiting, at first of the alimentary and fecal matters, with redundancy of bile, and spasms of the legs and thighs. This is nothing more than a form or variety of European Cholera. [Thomas1875]

A form of simple cholera characterized by purging, vomiting of bile, and spasms of the lower extremities. Regarded as real or Asiatic cholera if it occurred during an epidemic of the latter. [Appleton1904]

British Cholera

Simple Cholera

Epidemic Cholera

Asiatic Cholera

European Cholera

A name given to cholera as it usually appears in Europe when not epidemic, to distinguish it from the epidemic and malignant form of the disease known as Asiatic Cholera. [Thomas1875]

Indian Cholera

Asiatic Cholera

Cholera Infantum

Summer complaint. A disease of infants; indigenous to the United States; prevalent during hot weather in most of the towns of the middle and southern, and many of the western States; ordinarily characterized by excessive irritability of stomach, with purging, the stools being thin and colorless, or of various hues ofgreen and pink, but never yellow, except at the onset or during convalescences; fever of an obscurely remittent character; rapid emaciation; cold feet and hands, with preternatural heat of head and abdomen; dry, harsh and wilted skin; excessive thirst; and in the latter stages somnolency, the patient sleeping with his eyes half open; coma; the case terminating often with convulsions. [Hoblyn1855]

A disease that occurs, generally, in the Middle States of the Union, in June or July, and continues during hot weather; hence called the 'summer complaint'. The chief symptoms are vomiting, purging of green or yellow matter, slime, or blood, attended with pain or uneasiness, and swelling of the abdomen, with some pyrexia, generally. Differs little from what is vulgarly called the Watery Gripes in England. [Dunglison1874].

A dangerous summer disease, of infants, caused by hot weather, bad air, or poor milk, and especially fatal in large cities. [Webster].

Often fatal form of gastroenteritis occurring in children; not true cholera but having similar symptoms. [Wordnet]

Example from a Church in New York:

Cholera Maligna

Asiatic Cholera

Cholera Morbus

A common name of non-epidemic cholera. [Thomas1875]

A disease characterized by vomiting and purging, with gripings and cramps, usually caused by imprudence in diet or by gastrointestinal disturbance. Simple cholera. [Webster]

Cholera Nostras

Simple Cholera

Cholera Sicca

An old term for a malignant form of disease seen during epidemics of Asiatic cholera in which death occurs without diarrhea. [CancerWEB]

Simple Cholera

A disease most common in hot climates, at the close of summer or early autumn. Characterized by an acute catarrhal inflammation of the stomach which extends into the intestines. It generally begins with pain in the bowels, nausea and vomiting, and cramps in the extremities, followed by severe watery diarrhea. [Appleton1904]

Chorea

St. Vitus's dance; a disease attended with convulsive twitching and other involuntary movements of the muscles or limbs. [Webster1913].

Any of various disorders of the nervous system marked by involuntary, jerky movements, especially of the arms, legs, and face, and by incoordination. [Heritage]

Chorea Sancti Viti

St. Vitus' Dance

Chorea, Sydenham's

Chrisom

A child which died within a month after its baptism; -- so called from the chrisom cloth which was used as a shroud for it. [Webster]

Christian Disease

Syphilis. The Turks called it the Christian disease.

Chyluria

A morbid condition in which the urine contains chyle or fatty matter, giving it a milky appearance. [Heritage]

Cicatrix

Scar

Cinchonism

A condition produced by the excessive or long-continued use of quinine, and marked by deafness, roaring in the ears, vertigo, etc. [Webster]

Cirrhosis

Chronic interstitial inflammation of any tissue or organ. [Heritage]

The Clap

The vulgar name of a venereal infection. [Hoblyn1855]

Popular name for gonorrhea. [Dorland]

Coeliagra

Gout of the abdomen.

Climacteric

Climacteric Disease

This term has been applied to a sudden and general alteration of health, occurring at a certain period of life, and of uncertain duration. [Hoblyn1855]

Coffee-Grounds Vomit

Vomit with semi digested blood.

Coeliac Passion

Lientery

Cold

A catarrhal disorder of the upper respiratory tract, which may be viral, a mixed infection, or an allergic reaction. It is marked by acute rhinitis, a slight rise in temperature, and chilly sensations. [Dorland]

Cold Fever

An outbreak of Cerebrospinal Meningitis in the spring of 1814 in Maine. Also called spotted fever. [History and Description of an Epidemic Fever, Commonly Called Spotted Fever, Which Prevailed at Gardiner, Maine, in the Spring of 1814. Author: HALE, E]

Cold in the Head

Acute Rhinitis

Colic / Colica

Colic signifies an affection or pain in the colon. But it is employed in a more extensive signification. It includes every acute pain in the abdomen, aggravated at intervals. The word has often, however, epithets affixed to it, which render it more or less precise. [Dunglison1868].

Severe abdominal pain caused by spasm, obstruction, or distention of any of the hollow viscera, such as the intestines. Often a condition of early infancy, colic is marked by chronic irritability and crying. [Dorland].

 "colic" was first used: sometime around 1421. [Webster]

Arthritic Colic

Colic due to gout. [Appleton1904]