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Valvular Disease
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Endocarditis, valvulitis.
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Disease of the valves
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Endocarditis, valvulitis.
Example
from an 1871 Death Register in New Zealand:
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Valvulitis
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Inflammation of a
valve or valvula, especially a cardiac valve. [Dorland]
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Rheumatic
Valvulitis
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That due to rheumatic
fever, characterized by numerous small, translucent vegetations,
composed of fibrin and platelets, located on the edges of the
valve cusps along the lines of closure. The mitral valve is most
frequently involved. It is sometimes incorrectly called
rheumatic endocarditis. [Dorland]
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The Vapors
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A name for
hypochondriasis, spleen, or depression of spirits. [Thomas1875]
Archaic - 1. Exhalations within a bodily organ,
especially the stomach, supposed to affect the mental or physical
condition. 2. A nervous disorder such as depression or hysteria.
[Heritage]
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Varicella
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Chickenpox.
An acute, specific, and infectious disease, occurring during infancy
and early childhood, and characterized by an eruption that rapidly
passes through the stage of papule, vesicle, and pustule, and terminates
by desiccation, the entire period of this evolution not occupying
more than from three to five days. There may be successive crops
of the eruption. [Thomas1907]
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Varicose Vein
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A dilated tortuous vein, usually in the subcutaneous tissues of
the leg, often associated with incompetency of the venous valves.
[Dorland]
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Varicotomy
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Surgical
removal of varicose veins. [American Heritage]
Example from a 1932 Kansas death certificate:
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Variola
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A disease, now of
somewhat less interest than before the discovery of vaccination.
It is of very contagious nature, and is supposed to have been
introduced into Europe from Asia, at an early period of he
middle ages. It is characterized by fever, with pustules
appearing from the third to fifth day, and suppurating from the
eighth to the tenth, and it possesses all the distinctive
properties of the major exanthemata. [Dunglison1868].
Smallpox. A very
contagious disease characterized by synocha and an eruption of
pustules on the third day, which suppurate about the eighth, and
afterwards, drying, fall of in crusts. [Thomas1875].
A
highly contagious viral disease characterized by fever and
weakness and skin eruption with pustules that form scabs that
slough off leaving scars. [Wordnet]
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 smallpox. [American Heritage]
Example
from an 1856 Death Certificate from England:
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Variola Minor
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A mild form of
smallpox
caused by a less virulent strain of the virus; of low mortality.
[CancerWEB]
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Varioloid
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This is, really, small pox, modified by previous inoculation or
vaccination; and hence it has been properly called modified small
pox. It is, almost always, a milder disease than small pox; and
this circumstance, with its shorter duration, exhibits the salutary
effects of previous vaccination or inoculation. It has appeared
epidemically. [Dunglison 1874]
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Varix
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An abnormally dilated or swollen vein, artery, or lymph vessel.
[Heritage]
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Venae Prostration
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Total Collapse of the Veins. [Heritage]
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Venereal Disease
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See Sexually Transmitted Disease. A former classification of sexually
transmitted diseases that included only gonorrhea,
syphilis, chancroid,
lymphogranuloma venereum, and granuloma inguinale. [Dorland]
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Venesection
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Phlebotomy
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Vermes
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Invertebrates including the flatworms, roundworms and annelid worms
[MedlinePlus]
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Verminous Fever
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Fever, produced by the presence of worms in the digestive tube,
or accompanied by their expulsion. [Dunglison1868]
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Verruca
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Wart
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Verrugas
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Yaws
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Vertigo
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An illusory sense that either the environment or one's own body
is revolving; it may result from diseases of the inner ear or may
be due to disturbances of the vestibular centers or pathways in
the central nervous system. [Dorland]
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Vibex
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The large purple spots which appear under the skin in certain malignant
fevers. [Hooper1822]
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Viper's Dance
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Chorea
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Virus
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A Latin word, which signifies poison; but which, in medicine, has
a somewhat different acceptation. By it is understood a principle,
unknown in its nature and inappreciable by the senses, which is
the agent for the transmission of infectious diseases. Thus we speak
of variolic, the vaccine, and the syphilitic viruses. Virus differs
from venom in the latter being a secretion natural to certain animals,
whilst the former is always the result of a morbid process, - a
morbid poison. [Dunglison1868].
One of a group of minute infectious agents characterized by a lack
of independent metabolism and by the ability to replicate only within
living host cells. Like living organisms, they are able to reproduce
with genetic continuity and the possibility of mutation. [Dorland]
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Visceroptosis |
In "floating kidney" and "visceroptosis"
the internal organs were thought to have dropped, necessitating
treatment by the new art of abdominal surgery.
[Ann Dally 1997]
Descent of the viscera from their
normal positions. Also called splanchnoptosis. [Stedman] |
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Visitation of God |
From an
article: These considerations seem especially
relevant to the final category of coroners’ inquests we have
studied, those attributed to what juries regularly described as
the Visitation of God (‘ex visitatione dei’). This
categorization of death (one which was distinct in the jury
verdicts from accidental death) seems to have been invoked when
death arose inexplicably, or when it followed actions which were
not regarded as being likely, under normal circumstances, to
have resulted in a fatality. The exact cause of death is rarely
noted in the Crown Books, and here too further investigation in
the rolls is needed before any definite conclusions about this
categorization can be reached. One case in which the cause of
death was recorded, a case which demonstrates the occasional
fluidity of definitions by coroners’ juries, comes from 1610,
when it was noted that a man had died ‘de morbo gallico’, that
is, of syphilis. The original verdict that he had died ‘per
infortuna’ (by misfortune or accident) had been struck out, and
‘ex visitacone dei’ substituted. It is also noteworthy that
around 1600 verdicts of death by divine visitation were
regularly brought on prisoners who died in Chester gaol.
[ESRC Violence in Early Modern England]
The description "died by the
visitation of God" had been used at inquests in earlier times
but was no longer acceptable. Compulsory registration of deaths
had been introduced through the Births and Deaths Registration
Act of 1836/7. Giving the cause of death was optional at first,
but the trend towards accurate registration increased. In 1837
the Royal College of Physicians, the Royal College of Surgeons
and the Society of Apothecaries circulated a joint paper that
explained the need for accurate death certification and urged
doctors to provide it. In 1859 a publication called The
nomenclature of disease was drawn up by a committee appointed by
the Royal College of Physicians. Thereafter it was frequently
revised. When a medical practitioner gave a cause of death that
was unacceptable, the Registrar-General communicated with him in
an attempt to elicit a more accurate diagnosis." 1874 saw the
passing of another Births and Deaths Registration Act. It now
became compulsory to give the cause of death. The penalty for
failure to give the required information was a fine of up to
forty shillings.
[Ann Dally 1997]
Listed in the 1909 Manual
of the International Causes of Death 2nd Revision As: Cause of death
not specified or ill defined. [MICD1909] |
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Volhynian Fever
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Trench Fever
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Volvulus
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The
iliac passion, or inflammation in the bowels, called twisting of
the guts. [Hooper1829]
Ileus.
[Dunglison1874]
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Vomit
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To eject (contents of the stomach) through the mouth. [Dorland]
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Vomito
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The
yellow fever in its
worst form, when it is usually attended with black vomit. [Webster1913]
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Vulgo Dictu
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Encephalitis, Sleeping sickness.
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