Sahib’s Disease

Kala-Azar. [NomDis1961]

Sahib: Used formerly as a form of respectful address for a European man in colonial India.

Salivation

A superabundant secretion of saliva occasioned either locally, by the use of irritating masticatories, or under the influence of some cause which acts on the whole economy, and especially of mercurial preparations. [Dunglison1874]

Salt Rheum

An inflammatory disease of the skin, characterized by the presence of redness and itching, an eruption of small vesicles, and the discharge of a watery exudation, which often dries up, leaving the skin covered with crusts; -- called also tetter, milk crust [Webster]

Sandfly Fever

A febrile virus disease of short duration and no mortality, transmitted by Phlebotomus flies and clinically resembling influenza. It frequently occurs in epidemic form among new arrivals in endemic areas. [Saunders1945]

Sanguineous Crust

Scab

Sanies

A thin bad matter, discharged from an ill conditioned sore. [Buchan1798]

A thin, fetid, greenish fluid consisting of serum and pus discharged from a wound, ulcer, or fistula. [Heritage]

Sapræmia

Infection of the blood by putrefactive products. [Appleton1907]

Blood poisoning caused by putrefactive bacteria; results from eating putrefied matter [Wordnet]

Sarcoma

A malignant tumor arising from connective tissues. [Heritage]

Scabies

A contagious skin disease caused by a parasitic mite (Sarcoptes scabiei) and characterized by intense itching. [Heritage]

Fact sheet from CDC

Information sheet from NYS Dept of Health

Scald Head

A common name for Porrigo, or ringworm of the scalp. [Thomas1875]

A name popularly given to several diseases of the scalp characterized by pustules (the dried discharge of which forms scales) and by falling out of the hair. [Webster]

Scarlatina

A barbarous term, apparently of British origin, which has superseded the original and more classical name, Roseolia, or Scarlet Fever. [Hoblyn1855]

Scarlet fever; a disease characterized by contagious fever, and a scarlet eruption on the skin in patches, ending in three or four days in desquamation of the cuticle. It is often accompanied with great soreness in the fauces and throat. [Thomas1875].

Scarlatina Maligna

Malignant form of Scarlet Fever [Thomas1907]

Scarlatinella

Fourth disease, Rose rash, Roseola.

Scarlet Fever

An acute contagious disease of childhood, characterized by a bright, scarlet-colored, punctiform eruption, diffused over the entire body; by an angina more or less severe; by a fever so variable in character that it may only be detected by the thermometer, or so severe as to rapidly destroy life, the thermometer registering higher in this than in any other fever; and by a marked tendency to nephritis, the disease finally terminating' by desquamation of the skin. [Thomas1907]

Scarlet Rash

Scarlet Fever

Schistosomiasis

Any of various generally tropical diseases caused by infestation with schistosomes, widespread in rural areas of Africa, Asia, and Latin America through use of contaminated water, and characterized by infection and gradual destruction of the tissues of the kidneys, liver, and other organs. [Heritage]

Schizophrenia

Any of several psychotic disorders characterized by distortions of reality and disturbances of thought and language and withdrawal from social contact (syn: schizophrenic disorder, schizophrenic psychosis, dementia praecox). [Wordnet]

Schlammfieber

Name given to an outbreak of leptospirosis near Breslau in Germany thought to have been due to infection with Leptospira grippotyphosa. [CancerWEB]

Sciatica

Neuralgia femoropoplites; pain along the sciatic nerve usually caused by a herniated disk of the lumbar region of the spine and radiating to the buttocks and to the back of the thigh. [Heritage]

Scirrhus

Scirrhus Mammary

Scirrhus Ulceration of Eyelid

A hard dense cancerous growth usually arising from connective tissue. [Heritage]

Example from an 1893 death certificate from England:

Example from an 1862 Death Register from Scotland:

Scitta

Epidemic dysentery that prevailed in the 10th century. [Duglison1874]

Sclerosis

Induration; hardening; especially, that form of induration produced in an organ by increase of its interstitial connective tissue. [Webster]

Cerebro-Spinal Sclerosis

An affection in which patches of hardening, produced by increase of the neuralgia and atrophy of the true nerve tissue, are found scattered throughout the brain and spinal cord. It is associated with complete or partial paralysis, a peculiar jerking tremor of the muscles, headache, and vertigo, and is usually fatal. Called also multiple, disseminated, or insular, sclerosis. [Webster]

Scorbutic Fever

The febrile movement that sometimes accompanies scorbutus or scurvy. [Dunglison1868]

Scorbutic Ulcers

Ulcers caused by scurvy. [CivilWarMed]

Scorbutus

The scurvy, a disease characterized by heaviness, dejection of spirits, bloated countenance, livid spots on the skin, offensive breath, spongy gums, with occasional hemorrhage from the mouth and nostrils, swelling of the legs, etc. [Thomas1875]

Scotomy

Dizziness with dimness of sight. [Webster1913]

Screw Worm

The larva of an American fly (Compsomyia macellaria), allied to the blowflies, which sometimes deposits its eggs in the nostrils, or about wounds, in man and other animals, with fatal results. [Webster]

Scrofula

A disease characterized chiefly by chronic swelling of absorbent glands, particularly of the neck, behind the ears, and under the chin, tending slowly to imperfect suppuration. Also termed struma. [Thomas1875]

A form of tuberculosis affecting the lymph nodes, especially of the neck, that is most common in children and is usually spread by unpasteurized milk from infected cows. Also called struma; the King's Evil. [Heritage].

"scrofula" was first used: 14th century from the Late Latin expression "scrofulae " meaning swelling of the glands of the neck". [Webster]

Scrofula Americana

Scrofula when it is joined with the yaws. [Hooper1843]

Scrofula Consumption

Scrofula

Scrofula Fugax

Scrofula: This is of the simplest kind; it is seated only about the neck, and for the most part is caused by absorption from sores on the head.  [Hooper1843]

Scrofula Mesenterica

Scrofula when internal, with loss of appetite, pale countenance, swelling of the belly, and an unusual fetor of the excrements. [Hooper1843]

Scrofula Vulgaris

Scrofula when it is without other disorders external and permanent. [Hooper1843]

Scrofula of the Bowels

Inflammation and ulceration of the intestines from tubercular disease. [Webster1913]

Scrofuloderma

Tuberculosis resulting from extension into the skin from underlying atypical mycobacterial infection, most commonly of cervical lymph nodes. [CancerWEB]

Scurvy

Scurvy is a disease that results from insufficient intake of vitamin C and leads to the formation of livid spots on the skin, spongy gums and bleeding from almost all mucous membranes. The spots are most abundant on the thighs and legs, and a person with the ailment looks pale, feels depressed, and is partially immobilized. Scurvy was at one time common among sailors whose ships were out to sea longer than perishable fruits and vegetables could be stored and by soldiers who were similarly separated from these foods for extended periods. Symptoms include: weakness, joint pain, black-and-blue marks on the skin, gum disease, corkscrew hairs. It takes about three months of vitamin C deprivation to begin inducing the symptoms of scurvy. Untreated scurvy is always fatal, but since all that is required for full recovery is the resumption of normal vitamin C intake, death by scurvy is rare in modern times. Scurvy was probably first observed as a disease by Hippocrates. [Wikipedia]

Scurvy of the Alps

Pellagra

Black Scurvy

Scurvy resulting in induration of the legs and gangrene. Also called; black leprosy, joint evil and the scourge of the north. [Schmidt2007]

Button Scurvy

An epidemic cachectic affection, which has appeared in the southern counties of Ireland, and is characterized by indolent button like growths of the corpus papillare of the skin. It appears to be allied to framboesia. [Dunglison1868]

Land Scurvy

An affection, consisting in circular spots, stripes, or patches, scattered over the thighs, arms, and trunk; it is called by Bateman purpura haemorrhagica, from the occasional haemorrhage from the mouth, nostrils, or viscera. [Hoblyn1855]

Purpura

Second Disease

Scarlet Fever. Second of six classic exanthems, or rash-associated diseases, of childhood.

Seizure

The sudden attack or recurrence of a disease. A single episode of epilepsy; often a seizure is named for the kind of epilepsy it represents (see under epilepsy). Called also convulsion, fit, and ictus epilepticus. [Dorland]

Senectus

Old Age

Senectus Ultima

Decrepitude

Senile

Mentally or physically infirm with age. [Wordnet]

Senile Atrophy

Wasting of tissues and organs with advancing age from decreased catabolic or anabolic processes, at times due to endocrine changes, decreased use, or ischemia. [CancerWEB]

Senile Decay

Refers to the progressive loss of mental capacity that leads to dementia and personal helplessness. The majority of the cases recorded were most likely Alzheimer's disease. [Schmidt2007]

Senile Dementia

A progressive, abnormally accelerated deterioration of mental faculties and emotional stability in old age, occurring especially in Alzheimer's disease. [Heritage]

Senility

Old Age

Sepsis

The poisoned condition resulting from the presence of pathogens or their toxins, as in septicemia. [Heritage]

Septic

Containing or resulting from disease-causing organisms; "a septic sore throat". [Wordnet]

Septicemia

That morbid process commonly known as blood poisoning, in which, with or without a local site of infection, there is an invasion of the blood by bacteria or their toxins. [Thomas1907]

Seroma

A mass or tumefaction caused by the localized accumulation of serum within a tissue or organ. [CancerWEB]

Serum Sickness

A delayed allergic reaction to the injection of an antiserum caused by an antibody reaction to an antigen in the donor serum (syn: serum disease) [Wordnet]

Sexually Transmitted Disease

Any of various diseases, including chancroid, chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis, that are usually contracted through sexual intercourse or other intimate sexual contact. [Heritage]

Information sheet from NYS Dept of Health

The Shakes

The fever and ague. [Colloq. U.S.]. Malarial Fever. [Webster]

Shaking Palsy

A degenerative disorder of the central nervous system characterized by tremor and impaired muscular coordination; Parkinson's Disease. [Wordnet]

Sharp Fever

Epidemic Typhus

Shigellosis

Any condition produced by infection with organisms of the genus Shigella, such as bacillary dysentery. [Dorland]

Information sheet from NYS Dept of Health

Shinbone Fever

Trench Fever

Shingles

This is probably a corruption of the Latin cingulum, a girdle, so called from the situation which it occupies on the trunk of the body. It is the Herpes zoster of Bateman. [Hoblyn1855]

A popular name for herpes zoster. [Thomas1875]

Herpes zoster, an erysipelatous eruption around the middle of the body. [Cleaveland1886]

An acute viral infection characterized by inflammation of the sensory ganglia of certain spinal or cranial nerves and the eruption of vesicles along the affected nerve path. It usually strikes only one side of the body and is often accompanied by severe neuralgia. Also called herpes zoster. [Heritage]

Fact sheet from CDC

Information sheet from NYS Dept of Health

Ship Fever

Typhus Gravior

Sick Stomach

Milk sickness

Sideratio

The state of one struck suddenly, without apparent cause, and as if by the influence of the stars or planets. The ancients comprised under the name, different morbid conditions, such as paralysis, apoplexy, and gangrene. [Dunglison1868]

Sinking Chills

The congestive form of intermittent fever; called pernicious fever or congestive fever. It was known in the west as sinking chills.

Siriasis

Sunstroke

Situs Inversus

A congenital condition in which the organs of the viscera are transposed through the sagittal plane so that the heart, for example, is on the right side of the body. [Heritage]

Sixth Disease

Exanthem Subitum. Sixth of six classic exanthems, or rash-associated diseases, of childhood.

Slapped Cheek Syndrome

Fifth Disease

Slavering

Involuntary flow of saliva, from sluggishness of degluition, without increased secretion. It is seen in the infant, the aged, and the idiot. Also called Slabbering, Slobbering, Drivelling, and (Old English) Pirtling. [Dunglison1868].

Drooling; defiling with saliva. [Webster1913]

Sleeping Sickness

African Trypanosomiasis or Encephalitis Lethargica.

Sleepy Sickness

Sleeping Sickness

Sloughing

Dead tissue separating from the surrounding tissue. [CivilWarMed]

Slow Fever

Typhoid Fever

Slows

Milk Sickness

Smallpox

An acute, highly infectious, often fatal disease caused by a poxvirus and characterized by high fever and aches with subsequent widespread eruption of pimples that blister, produce pus, and form pockmarks. Also called variola. [Heritage].

There are three forms of smallpox: variola major, variola minor and hemorrhagic smallpox, or black pox. These vary in severity and fatality with black pox being 100% fatal. [Webster]

"smallpox" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1588. [Webster]

Fact sheet from WHO

Hemorrhagic Smallpox

Another variety is that in which the eruption assumes the haemorrhagic form owing to bleeding taking place into the pocks after their formation. This is apt to be accompanied with haemorrhages from various mucous surfaces (particularly in the case of females), occasionally to a dangerous degree and with symptoms of great prostration. Many of such cases prove fatal. [Britannica1911]

Malignant Smallpox

A still more serious form is that termed malignant, toxic or purpuric smallpox, in which there is intense streptococcus septicaemia, and the patient is from the onset overwhelmed with the poison and quickly succumbs. The rash scarcely, if at all, appearing or showing in the haemorrhagic or purpuric character. [Britannica1911]

Purpuric Smallpox

Malignant Smallpox

Toxic Smallpox

Malignant Smallpox

West Indian modified Smallpox

Variola Minor

Snail Fever

Schistosomiasis

Snurle

Coryza

Soft Chancre

Chancroid

Brain Softening

Cerebral Softening

Cerebral Softening

A localized softening of the brain substance, due to hemorrhage or inflammation. Three varieties, distinguished by their color and representing different stages of the morbid process, are known respectively as red, yellow, and white, softening. [Webster]

Red Softening

Cerebral softening resulting from inflammation. [Dunglison1874]

White Softening

Cerebral softening resulting from imperfect nutrition, due to deficient supply of blood. [Dunglison1874]

Yellow Softening

Cerebral softening resulting from the death of a portion of the cerebral tissue. [Dunglison1874]

Soor

Aphthae

Sore Mouth

Stomatitis

Sore Throat

Angina Simplex

Sore Throat Distemper

The croup, diphtheria.

Malignant  Sore Throat

Cynanche Maligna

Spanish Disease

Syphilis. The Italians and the Dutch called it the Spanish disease.

Heart Spasm

Angina Pectoris

Spasms / Spasmus

A sudden, involuntary contraction of a muscle or group of muscles; Cramps. [Heritage]

Infantile Spasms

Primary generalized epileptic seizures occurring in infants between birth and twelve months of age consisting of brief synchronous contractions of the neck, torso, and both arms. These seizures often occur in infants with underlying neurologic diseases. [CancerWEB]

Sphacelus

Gangrene when it occupies the whole limb of a body. [Dunglison1868]

Spider Fingers

Marfan's Syndrome

Spina Bifida

A congenital defect in which the spinal column is imperfectly closed so that part of the meninges or spinal cord protrudes, often resulting in hydrocephalus and other neurological disorders. Also called schistorrhachis. [Heritage]

Spirillum Fever

Relapsing Fever

Spleen

Hypochondria

Spondylitis Deformans

Arthritis and osteitis deformans involving the spinal column; marked by nodular deposits at the edges of the intervertebral disks with ossification of the ligaments and bony ankylosis of the intervertebral articulations, it results in a rounded kyphosis with rigidity. [CancerWEB]

Spotted Fever

A febrile disease typically characterized by a skin eruption, such as typhus gravior, epidemic cerebral meningitis, and the infections caused by tick-borne rickettsiae (Rocky Mountain spotted fever, boutonneuse fever, and others). [Dorland]

Sprue

A chronic form of malabsorption syndrome occurring in both tropical and nontropical forms. [Dorland].

Also called: Sprew.

Squinancy

Quinsy

Squinzey

Quinsy

St. Andrew's Disease

Gout

St. Anthony's Fire

Ergotism; aka Ignis Sacer and Holy Fire, also used for Anthrax and later for Erysipelas. [Schmidt2005]

Erysipelas. [Hoblyn1855].

Erysipelas. [Dunglison1868].

The erysipelas; -- popularly so called because it was supposed to have been cured by the intercession of Saint Anthony. [Webster1913]

Erysipelas, Anthrax. [Gould1916]

Erysipelas; -- an eruptive fever which St. Anthony was supposed to cure miraculously. --Hoblyn. [Webster]

Ergotism;  is the effect of long-term ergot poisoning, classically due to the ingestion of the alkaloids produced by the Claviceps purpurea fungus which infects rye and other cereals, and more recently by the action of a number of ergoline-based drugs. It is also known as ergotoxicosis or ergot poisoning. [Wikipedia]

The history of Saint Anthony’s Fire is fascinating but complex. In the majority of the old documents it is depicted as a horrible disease leading to excruciating pain, gangrene and hallucinations. Many diseases including black death and syphilis have been named in this way; however after the Middle Ages, Saint Anthony’s Fire became a synonym of ergotism in France and Germany, of erysipelas in England, of herpes zoster in Italy. While the term of ‘Saint Anthony’s Fire’ is outdated when it refers to ergotism or erysipelas, in Italy herpes zoster is, at present still, more well known by its eponym. [www.bium.univ-paris5.fr].

Medicinenet St Anthony's Fire - Ergotism

CSP Ergot and Ergotism

UCLA Botanical Garden - Claviceps

Health and Energy - Diseases linked to Molds
 

St. Gothard's Disease

Ankylostomiasis. [Gould1916]

St. Hubert's Disease

Hydrophobia. [Gould1916]

St. John's Dance

St. Vitus' Dance, chorea

St. John's Evil

Epilepsy

St. Roch's Disease

Bubo. [Gould1916]

St. Sement's Disease

Syphilis. [Gould1916]

St. Vitus' Dance

Chorea Santi Viti. It consisted in tremulous and jerking motions of the limbs. The name of St. Vitus' Dance was given to this affection, in consequence of the cure produced on certain women of disordered mind, upon their visiting the chapel of St. Vitus, near Ulm, and there dancing from morning till night. [Hoblyn1855]

Chorea occurring chiefly in children and associated with rheumatic fever; Sydenham's Chorea. [Heritage]

Old term for a syndrome of supposed enlargement of the thymus and lymph nodes in infants and young children, formerly believed to be associated with unexplained sudden death; it was also erroneously believed that pressure of the thymus on the trachea might cause death during anesthesia. Prominence of these structures is now considered normal in young children, including those who have died suddenly without preceding illnesses that might lead to atrophy of lymphoid tissue. [Cancerweb]

Stegnosis

Constriction or narrowing of the pores or vessels. Stricture. Constipation,. Suppression or stopping or stoppage of the evacuations. [Dunglison1874]

Stenosis

A constriction or narrowing of a duct or passage; a stricture. [Heritage]

Stethaemia

Hyperaemia of the lungs. Congestion or accumulation of blood in the pulmonary vessels. [Dunglison1868]

Stillbirth

A child or fetus dead at birth.  [Heritage]

Stillborn

Dead at birth.

Example from an 1898 Cemetery record from Maine:

Example from a 1909 Canadian Death Certificate:

Stitch

A spasmodic action of the muscles of the side, accompanied with pain, produced by running, etc. [Hoblyn1855]

A local sharp pain; an acute pain, like the piercing of a needle; as, a stitch in the side. [Webster].

A symptom of Pleurisy. [Buchan1785]

Stitches in the Side

Intercostal Neuralgia. [Gould1916]

Stomach Disease

Limosis

Stomach Flu

Gastroenteritis

Stomatitis

Inflammation of the mouth. [Appleton1904]

Any of numerous inflammatory diseases of the mouth having various causes (as mechanical trauma, irritants, allergy, vitamin deficiency, or infection). [Merriam-Webster]

Stonepock

Tubercular tumours of the face, the acne indurata of Bateman. [Hoblyn1855]

Stoppage

Stegnosis

Stopping

Constipation

Strain

To injure or impair by overuse or overexertion. [Heritage]

Stranger's Fever

Yellow or remittent fever, which is endemic in certain places, and to which strangers are especially liable. [Dunglison1868]

Strangulation

State of a part too closely constricted. Thus we say that there is strangulation of an intestinal hernia, when the opening that gives passage to the portion of the protruded intestine seriously intercepts the continuity of the digestive canal. In Legal Medicine, it means the forcible obstruction of the air-passages, by a ligature or by the hand, for criminal purposes. See suffocation. [Dunglison1874]

Stranguria / Strangury

A condition marked by slow, painful urination, caused by muscular spasms of the urethra and bladder. [Heritage]

Strep Throat

An infection of the throat, often epidemic, caused by hemolytic streptococci and characterized by fever and inflammation of the tonsils. [Heritage]

Strawberry Tongue

Stricture

The abnormal narrowing of a canal, duct, or passage. [CivilWarMed]

Stricture of the Uretha

Stricture

Stroke

Apoplexy