"If you can't get rid of the family skeleton, you may as well make it dance"
-George Bernard Shaw


Sunday, February 24, 2019

Old Medical Terms- A List!

So in response to my Sept 1st post about old medical terms, I decided to make a list of old medical terms that I have discovered through my research.  This is not an exhaustive list by any means. Just a few terms that I have seen through my research and what they really mean.  I will be coming back to this post and updating as I come across additional old medical terms.  Please feel free to share any in the comments below!

Apoplexy- Paralysis caused by a stroke.
Bright's Disease: Nephritis-inflammation of the kidney
Childbed fever- infection after childbirth; see Puerperal fever
Cholera infantum- diarrhea in young children common in poor or hand fed babies-meaning that they were fed with a flour and water mixture and resulted in vitamin deficiency.
Consumption- disease of wasting away of any part of the body eventually becoming tuberculosis
Dropsy- Heart Failure
Effluvia- Exhaustion.
Erysipelas- Strep infection of the skin; highly contagious.  Generally not fatal unless other diseases are present and cause a weakened state.  Also called St. Anthony's Fire, or St. Anthony's Rose, and Eel Thing.
Generalized Paralysis of the Insane: (GIP) fatal complication of Syphilis infection
Inanition- Starvation
Le Grippe- Influenza
Puerperal fever- Infection after childbirth, common in the 1800s caused by lack of sanitary conditions which caused sepsis in the mother.  It was also called Childbed fever.
Senile debility- Old age
Shell Shock- PTSD
Soldier's Heart- PTSD
Yellow Fever- Typhoid fever


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