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Medical Terms of the 1800s |
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| Ablepsia | blindness |
| Ague |
intermittent fever or chills |
| Ambustio | burn |
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Amputation, primary |
usually done in within the first 24 hours of original injury |
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Amputation, secondary |
performed to improve the primary amputation |
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Anodynes |
medication that help with pain |
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Apoplexy |
stroke, or impairment from a brain hemorrhage |
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Aphtha |
Thrush |
| Army Itch | Scabies |
| Asenthia | Weakness |
| Bilious fever | Malaria or thyphoid |
| Black Water Fever | Fever accompanied by dark colored urine |
| Bright's disease | Kidney Disease |
| Camp State or Fever |
symptoms which happened when troops were crowded together like fevers and diarrhea. |
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Catalepsy |
seizures or trances |
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Catarrhus |
mucus membrane inflammation |
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Child Bed Fever |
infection after childbirth |
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Chlorosis |
anemia |
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Cholera |
infectious disease, including diarrhea, often leading to death |
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Colica |
abdominal pain |
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Consumption |
tuberculosis, or a general wasting away |
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Coryza |
acute inflammation of nose and tonsils. |
| Cow Pox | a virus similar to smallpox. Caught from the udders of cows which have blisters, caught by touch, usually localized. Was used as a successful vaccination against smallpox. |
| Crop Sickness | bloated stomach |
| Crowd Poisonings | fevers and sickness when troops were crowded together |
| Debility | lack of strength, a lasting symptom |
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Dementia |
insanity, many different levels |
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Dengue |
fever from a mosquito bite |
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Dropsy |
congestive heart failure |
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Dysentery |
inflammation of intestines, caused by bacteria or parasites |
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Dyspepsia |
stomach discomfort after meals |
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Dyspenia |
trouble breathing |
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Erysipelas |
contagious skin disease, redness and swelling of affected areas |
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Falling Sickness |
epilepsy |
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Flux |
diarrhea |
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Glanders |
an infectious disease that can start with horses, donkeys and mules. Attacks the respiratory system. |
| Goiter | swelling of lymph gland |
| Grippe | influenza, flu |
| Hemophthis | spitting up blood |
| Impetigo | contagious skin disease |
| Inflammatory Rheumatism | rheumatic fever |
| Lockjaw | tetanus |
| Malaria | transmitted by mosquitos, chills, fever and sweating can be recurrent |
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Marasmus |
infant wasting away from causes unknown |
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Miasma |
poisonous vapors thought to have infected the air. |
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Milk Leg |
swelling of legs of women who recently gave birth |
| Milk sickness | sickness from the ingestion of milk, milk products or meat products from animals having the "trembles" |
| Morphew | scurvy blisters |
| mortification | death |
| osteomylitis | inflammation of the bone or surgical fever |
| Neurasthenia | neurosis caused by worry, and causing indigestion, etc. |
| Parotitis | Mumps |
| Peritonitis | frequently the cause of death in abdominal wounds |
| Pleurisy | lung inflammation |
| Pneumonia | inflammation of the lungs |
| Padogra | gout |
| Pox | syphilis |
| Prostration | extreme exhaustion |
| Pyemia | pus in blood, used to be for all types of blood poisoning, usually fatal |
| Pyrosis | heartburn |
| Quinsy | abscess of the tonsils |
| Rheumatism | inflammation of the joints, muscles |
| Rubella | measles |
| Scarlatina | scarlet fever |
| scrofula | tuberculosis of the lymph nodes |
| Scurvey | Vitamin C deficiency disease. In civil war they tried to prevent this by having soldiers eat desiccated vegetables as a ration. |
| Sleeping Sickness | encephalitis |
| sub-Laxatio | non complete dislocation |
| Suppuration | formation of pus, thought to be a good thing in the 1860's |
| Trench Mouth | sores or ulcers in the mouth at the gum line |
| Variola | smallpox |
| Venesection | bleeding |
| Vulnus Incisim | incisional wound |
| Vulnus Punctum | puncture wound |
| Vulnus Sclopeticum | gunshot wound |
| winter fever | pneumonia |
| Yellow Fever | Virus, was thought to have been brought by air instead of mosquitos |
Sources:
http://freepages.computers.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~grundyconnections/medterminolgy.html
“Civil War Medicine” by C Keith Wilbur MD, 1998

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