Old Medical Terms and Diseases

The following is a list of medical terms and diseases that will appear on historic documents. Feel free to print out and share this!

• Abdominal typhus – A type of typhus fever characterized by bluish spots appearing on the abdomen a few days after the disease is contracted.
• Ablepsia – Blindness.
• Abluent – A substance which thins, purifies, or sweetens the blood.
• Ablution – Washing the body externally or internally with diluting fluids.
• Abracadabra – A cabalistic word, used as a charm, and believed to have the power to cure illness and disease when written in a triangular arrangement and worn around the neck.
• Abscess – A collection of purulent matter or pockets of pus, usually fatal, sometimes caused by amebic dysentery.
• Abstracted – medical record A record prepared for soldiers treated at medical facilities in posts, camps, and in the field, containing name, rank, unit, reason for treatment, and treatment time period.
• Aches – Convulsions.
• Achor – The scald head, a disease forming scaly eruptions, supposed to be critical evacuation of acrimonious humors; a species of herpes.
• Acme – The period of full growth or mature age, often used in medical records to describe the maturity of a person.
• Aconite – A medicine made from the dried root of the monkshood used to reduce fever, as a sedative, and as a painkiller.
• African consumption – Consumption (tuberculosis) suffered by a Negro, usually a slave.
• Aglutition – Inability to swallow, frequently found on death certificates.
• Ague – Originally the feverish stage, but afterwards more usually the cold or shivering stage of an acute or violent fever; a malarial fever.
• Ague-cake – A hard tumor or swelling on the left side of the abdomen, lower than the false rib, resulting from enlargement of the spleen or liver, and supposed to be the effect of intermitting fevers.
• Ague tree – Sassafras, a tree effective in reducing fevers.
• Aksis – Access, an intense feeling of fever or ague.
• Aleberry – A beverage used in England in the 1800’s of ale boiled with spice and sugar and bits of bread, sometimes used for invalids.
• Amentia – Feeble mindedness; a temporary, confused state of insanity.
• American plague – Yellow fever.
• Anaplerotic – A medicine which promotes the healing process, and helps renew flesh or wasted parts – often found in medical records.
• Anascara – A form of dropsy where there is swelling just beneath the skin which produces a very puffed appearance of the flesh over a large surface of the body.
• Ancome – An ulcerous swelling, a boil.
• Aneurism – An abnormal dilation or rupture of the coats of an artery, either encysted or diffused.
• Angina – The general name of the diseases called sore throat, as quinsy, scarlet fever, croup, mumps, etc.
• Angina pectoris – A dangerous disease, with paroxysms characterized by sudden and severe pain in the lower chest, with a feeling of suffocation.
• Anodyne – A drug which will dull pain; analgesic.
• Anthelmintic – Something used to expel or destroy intestinal worms.
• Antifebrile – A medicine able to abate or cure fever.
• Antiparalytic – A medicine used to help palsy victims.
• Antiperiodic – A medicine which prevented the periodic return of certain diseases, such as malaria.
• Antipestilential – A substance that will counteract or stop contagion or infection.
• Antiphlogistic – A remedy used for inflammations.
• Antiscorbutic – A remedy used to fight scurvy.
• Antisialogogue – A medicine used to decrease a heavy flow of saliva.
• Antispasmodic – A medicine used to reduce muscle cramps or spasms.
• Antisyphilitic – A medicine used to cure syphilis.
• Aphtha – The infantile disease thrush.
• Apoplexy – Hemorrhage of a blood vessel in the brain; a sudden loss of sensation; paralysis due to stroke.
• Ascites – A large collection of fluid in the abdominal cavity; dropsy of the abdomen.
• Asfetidia – A short perennial herb that produces a resinous gum used as an antispasmodic and flavoring.
• Asylum – A place of refuge for the care of orphans and, more usually, for the confinement of the insane.
• Axes – The ague, generally fits or attacks.
• Bacteremia – Blood poisoning.
• Balm – An aromatic substance consisting of resin mixed with volatile oils, much prized for its fragrance and medicinal properties.
• Balsam – An aromatic oily medicine used for external application to heal wounds or soothe pain.
• Barrel fever – Sickness produced by immoderate drinking.
• Beal – A pimple; a pustule.
• Bechic – Pectoral; a medicine for relieving coughs.
• Bedehouse – A hospital; an alms house.
• Belladonna – A medicine to calm the digestive system, derived from the Deadly Nightshade plant.
• Bethlehem – A hospital for the mentally ill.
• Bethlehemite – A mentally ill person.
• Bilious – Having an undue amount of bile.
• Bilious fever – A fever supposed to be due to a liver disorder.
• Bistoury – Surgical instrument for making incisions.
• Bitters – A tonic made of alcohol and a vegetable infusion.
• Black drink – A drink made of leaves used by the Indians of the southern U.S. as a ceremonial drink and as a medicine.
• Black plague – A form of bubonic plague.
• Black pox – Black smallpox.
• Black-pudding – A food made of blood and grain.
• Black vomit – Vomiting caused by the presence of old blood in the stomach due to conditions such as a bleeding ulcer or yellow fever.
• Blood stone – A stone worn as an amulet and thought to be a preventive for nosebleeds.
• Bloody flux – Dysentery; discharges from the bowels mixed with blood.
• Bloody sweat – A sweat accompanied by a discharge of blood; a disease called sweating sickness.
• Bloughty – Swollen.
• Bone-shave – Sciatica, hip-gout.
• Bowel complaint – Any gastrointestinal disorder.
• Brain Fever – Meningitis.
• Breakbone – Dengue fever.
• Bright’s disease – Chronic inflammatory disease of the kidneys.
• Bronchocele – Enlarged thyroid gland.
• Bronze John – Yellow fever.
• Bule – A boil, tumor, or swelling.
• Caccagague – An ointment made of alum and honey, used as a laxative.
• Cachexy – An extreme condition of the body caused by malnutrition.
• Cacogastric – An upset stomach.
• Cacopathy – A severe affliction or malady.
• Cacospysy – A bad or irregular pulse rhythm.
• Cacotrophy – Condition of the body due to poor nutrition.
• Caducous – Subject to falling sickness or epilepsy.
• Calefacient – A medical agent that produces warmth or a sense of heat.
• Caligo – Dimming of the sight.
• Calmative – Sedative.
• Calomel – A purgative or laxative made from mercurous chloride.
• Camp fever – Typhus.
• Camphor – An odorous substance used in pharmacy products, formerly as an antaphrodasiac.
• Camphor cerate – A preparation for external application consisting of wax, camphor, and other medicinal ingredients used in treating colds.
• Canine madness – Hydrophobia (rabies).
• Cankery – Gangrenous.
• Catalepsy – A disease characterized by a seizure or trance wherin sensation and consciousness are suspended.
• Catarrh – Cerebral hemorrhage or apoplexy, it later came to mean an inflammation of the mucous membrane which caused profuse running of the eyes and nose.
• Catarrh – epidemic Influenza.
• Cathartic – A purgative or strong laxative.
• Causary – Dismissal from military service due to ill health.
• Cephalic – A medicine for headache or other disorders of the head.
• Charnel house – A vault or house under or near a church where bones of the dead are kept.
• Chilblain – An inflammatory swelling of the hands and feet caused by exposure to cold.
• Childbed fever – Infection following birth of a child; puerperal fever.
• Chin-cough – A contagious disease, sometimes called whooping cough, characterized by breathing difficulties, and in its worst stage, convulsions.
• Chiropodist – One who treats diseases of the hands and feet.
• Chlorosis – The sickness common to females and characterized by a pale or greenish hue of the skin, weakness, palpitation, and dyspepsia.
• Cholagogue – A medicine for diminishing excess bile.
• Cholecystitis – Inflammation of the gall bladder.
• Cholelithiasis – Stones in the gall bladder or bile duct.
• Cholera – Acute severe contagious diarrhea with intestinal lining sloughing.
• Cholera morbus – Characterized by nausea, vomiting, abdominal cramps, elevated temperature, etc. Could be appendicitis.
• Clap-doctor – One who is skilled in healing the clap, a venereal disease (gonorrhea).
• Clyster – A medicine injected into the rectum which cleansed the bowels and afforded nutrition; an enema.
• Cold plague – A kind of ague in which the body suffered extreme chills.
• Confined – Constipated.
• Congestion – The accumulation of matter in the body such as in abscesses or tumors; the accumulation of blood in one part of the body.
• Congestive – chills/ fever Malaria.
• Consumption – Pulmonary tuberculosis; a wasting away of the body.
• Coqueluche – An epidemic of catarrh; later, of whooping cough.
• Cordial – That which suddenly invigorates the system and stimulates the action of the heart or blood circulation; any medicine which increases strength or raises the spirits.
• Corpse viewer – A coroner.
• Correction house – A facility to provide rehabilitation for the insane and petty lawbreakers.
• Corruption – Infected condition.
• Costiveness – Constipation.
• Cramp colic – Appendicitis.
• Crop-sickness – Sickness from an overextended stomach, usually from excess eating or drinking.
• Croup – A disease known scientifically as acute obstructive laryngitis, diphtheria, or occasionally strep throat.
• Cupping – Drawing blood using a cup from which the air has been removed.
• Cyanosis – Blueness of the skin due to lack of oxygen.
• Cynanche – Diseases of the throat, characterized by inflammation, swelling, and difficulty breathing or swallowing.
• Cystitis – Inflammation of the bladder.
• Cystotomy – The act of opening encysted tumors to discharge morbid matter.
• Daturine – A drug used to treat seizures and mental disorders.
• Day fever – A fever of a day’s duration or coming on in the daytime; the sweating sickness.
• Decedent – A deceased person.
• Decrepitude – Feebleness and decay due to old age.
• Delirium tremens – A condition found in persons whose use of alcohol is excessive resulting in hallucinations, both visual and auditory.
• Dengue – An acute infectious fever, characterized by excruciating pain in the joints but seldom proving fatal.
• Dentition – Cutting of the teeth.
• Deplumation – A tumor of the eyelids which results in loss of hair.
• Diaphoretic – A medicine or preparation that induces perspiration.
• Diary fever – A fever that lasts one day.
• Diet-drink – Medicated liquors or drink prepared with medicinal ingredients.
• Digitalis – A medicine used as a heart stimulant, prepared from the fox-glove.
• Diphtheria – A contagious throat disease characterized by the formation of a false membrane in the air passages.
• Dock fever – Yellow fever.
• Dropsy – An abnormal collection of fluid in the tissues and cavities of the body; edema (swelling), often caused by kidney or heart disease.
• Dropsy of the Brain – Encephalitis.
• Dry bellyache – Lead poisoning.
• Dyscrasy – An ill habit or state of the bodily humors; an abnormal condition of the body.
• Dysentery – Inflammation of colon with frequent passage of mucous and blood.
• Dysorexy – A diminished appetite.
• Dyspepsia – Bad digestion usually involving weakness, loss of appetite, and depression.
• Dysury – Difficulty in discharging urine, accompanied by pain and a sensation of heat.
• Earth-bath – A medical treatment in which the patient was buried up to the shoulders in the ground.
• Eclampsy – A symptom of epilepsy; convulsions during pregnancy.
• Ecstasy – In medicine, a species of catalepsy, wherin reason is temporarily suspended.
• Edema – Nephrosis; a swelling of tissues.
• Edema of lungs – Congestive heart failure or a form of dropsy.
• Edematous – Swelling with a serous humor; dropsical.
• Elephantiasis – A species of leprosy, so called from the skin being covered with incrustations, marked by a thickening and greasiness of the legs, loss of hair and feeling, swelling of the face, and a hoarse nasal voice.
• Elixir – A drug or medicine supposed to have the power to prolong life; cure-all; eventually, quack medicine.
• Encephalitis – Swelling of the brain; aka sleeping sickness.
• Enteric fever – Typhoid fever.
• Enterocolitis – An inflammation affecting both the small and large intestine.
• Enteritis – Inflammation of the bowels, usually acute rather then chronic.
• Epistaxis – A nose bleed.
• Epithelial – Of or pertaining to epithelium, cancerous cells.
• Erysipelas – A skin disease caused by strep infection which devastates the blood.
• Excrescence – An unnatural or disfiguring outgrowth of the skin.
• Extravasated blood – Ruptured blood vessel.
• Falling sickness – Epilepsy.
• Febrifuge – Any substance such as a plant, root, or herb that reduces fever.
• Febrile – Being feverish or having a high temperature.
• Felon – An infection on the end of a finger or toe.
• Fermacy – A pharmacy.
• Fever powder – A remedy for subduing or curing fever.
• Fistula – An abnormal passage from an abscess or cavity to the skin or to another abscess.
• Fleam – Surgical knife used for opening veins for letting blood.
• Flux – An excessive flow or discharge of fluid like hemorrhage or diarrhea; the drainage or discharge of liquid from a body cavity.
• Flux of humor – Circulation.
• Furuncle – A small tumor or boil, with inflammation and pain, under the skin.
• Gastrocele – A ruptured stomach.
• Gathering – A collection of pus; an abscess.
• Green sickness – Anemia; chlorosis; a disease of young women giving the complexion a greenish tinge.
• Grippe – Influenza.
• Grocer’s itch – A cutaneous disease caused by mites in sugar and flour.
• Heat sickness – A condition marked especially by cessation of sweating and extremely high body temperature, caused by a loss of salt from the body.
• Hectical complaint – A remittent fever with stages of chilliness, heat, and sweat; (rare) a person suffering with tuberculosis.
• Hematemesis – Vomiting blood.
• Hematuria – A discharge of bloody urine.
• Hemoptysis – Spitting up blood from the larynx, trachea, bronchi, or lungs.
• Herpes zoster – Shingles.
• Hip gout – Osteomyelitis.
• Huntington’s chorea – A nervous disorder, accompanied by increasing mental deterioration.
• Hydrocephalus – An abnormal increase in the amount of fluid in the cranium, causing enlargement of the head and loss of mental powers.
• Hydropericardium – Heart dropsy.
• Hydrophobia – Dread of water; a symptom of canine madness (rabies).
• Hydrops – Dropsy.
• Hydrothorax – Dropsy in the chest; an abnormal amount of fluid in the pleural cavity.
• Hyertropy of heart – Enlargement of the heart.
• Hysterotomy – A Cesarean section.
• Icterus – Jaundice.
• Ileus – An obstruction of the intestines resulting in severe constipation and pain.
• Impetigo – Any of certain contagious skin diseases characterized by the eruption of pustules, caused by staphylococci.
• Infantile paralysis – Poliomylitis.
• Intestinal colic – Pain throughout the abdomen, usually caused by an improper diet.
• Intussusception – The condition where part of the intestine has slipped into another part just below it.
• Jail fever – Typhus.
• Jalap – A purgative medicine made from the root of the Mexican jelap.
• Jaundice – Condition caused by blockage of intestines, characterized by yellowness of the skin, fluids, and tissues, and by constipation, loss of appitite, and weakness.
• Lagrippe – Influenza.
• Laryngismus stridulus – A condition, usually associated with boys under the age of two afflicted with rickets, in which the muscles of the voice box go into spasms causing shortness of breath and a ‘crowing’ sound.
• Laudanum – Any of various pain killing preparations in which opium was the main ingredient.
• Lazaretto – A hospital, building, or a ship where diseased persons are quarantined.
• Leech – A physician; a leech used for drawing blood.
• Lent-evil – The ague.
• Lientery – A flux of the bowels in which the aliments are discharged undigested.
• Lockjaw – Tetanus or infectious disease affecting the muscles of the neck and jaw. Fatal if untreated in 8 days.
• Long sickness – Tuberculosis.
• Lumbago – A pain in the loins and small of the back, such as precedes certain fevers.
• Lung fever – Pneumonia.
• Lung sickness – Tuberculosis.
• Madstone – A small porous stone which supposedly absorbed venom from a snake bite and cured hydrophobia (rabies).
• Mania puerperium – A mental disorder affecting new mothers.
• Marasmus – A disease characterized by progressive deterioration of body tissue, usually due to severe malnutrition or protracted intestinal disorders.
• Melanuric – Malarial fever, black-water fever.
• Membranous croup – Diphtheria.
• Menagogue – A medicine that promotes menstrual flux.
• Meningitis – Inflation of the membranes of the brain or spinal cord.
• Miasma – Poisonous vapor formerly supposed to arise from decomposing animal or vegetable matter, swamps, etc., and infect the air.
• Midwife – A woman experienced in the birthing process who helps other women in the birth of a child.
• Milk fever – A fever accompanying the first flowing of milk in females after childbirth.
• Milk sickness – A disease, once common in the western U.S., caused by drinking the milk, eating mild products, of flesh of cattle that have eaten any of various poisonous weeds.
• Morbus – Disease.
• Mormal – Gangrene.
• Morphew – A scurvy eruption on the body.
• Morphine (morphinism) – A chronic intoxication due to the habitual use of morphine or of opium in some other form.
• Myelitis – Inflammation of the spinal cord or bone marrow.
• Myocarditis – Inflammation of the muscular walls of the heart.
• Necrosis – The death of tissue; mortification, especially of the bones.
• Nephritic – A purgative medicine to relieve or cure disorders of the kidneys, particularly gravel or stone in the bladder.
• Nephritis – Inflammation of the kidneys.
• Nephrosis – Kidney degeneration, without signs of inflammation, due to the failure of fluid to be passed on through the kidneys to the bladder for disposal.
• Nephrotomy – The operation of extracting a stone from the kidney.
• Nervine – A medicine for relief of nervous disorders.
• Neuralgia – An affection of one or more nerves causing intermittent but frequent pain.
• Nostrum – A panacea or quack medicine, the ingredients of which were kept secret.
• Onkotomy – The opening of a tumor or abscess.
• Opiate – Any medicine that induces sleep or respite; a narcotic.
• Ossification – The formation of bone; the process of becoming or changing into bone.
• Osteopathy – A theory of disease and method of cure based on the assumption that loss of structural integrity of the skeleton is the cause of most diseases.
• Osteo sarcoma – A disease or sarcoma of the bony tissue, characterized by a fleshy growth.
• Otitis – Inflammation of the ear.
• Palsy – The loss or defect of the power of voluntary muscular motion in all or part of the body; paralysis.
• Panacea – A universal remedy for all diseases.
• Pandemic – Occurring over a wide geographic area and affecting an exceptionally high proportion of the population.
• Paregoric – A camphorated tincture of opium that soothes or lessens pain.
• Paroxysm – A fit of higher excitement or emotion in a disease; convulsion.
• Parrot’s bill – A surgeon’s pincers.
• Parturition – Childbirth.
• Pemphigus – A skin disease characterized by the formation of watery blisters.
• Pepastic – A medicine that serves to help digestion.
• Pericarditis – Inflammation of the sac around the heart.
• Peripneumonia – Inflammation of the lungs.
• Peritonitis – Inflammation of the peritoneum, the membrane which lines the abdominal cavity, usually the most serious complication of appendicitis.
• Pertussis – Whooping cough.
• Pesthouse – A house or hospital for persons infected with a contagious disease.
• Petechial fever – A small red or purple spot in the skin occurring in certain fevers.
• Pharmacopoeist – A person who sells medicines; an apothecary.
• Phlebotomy – The act of opening a vein for letting blood.
• Phrenitis – Formerly inflammation of the brain, with acute fever and delirium; inflammation of the diaphragm.
• Phthiriasis – Infestation of lice.
• Phthisis – A progressive wasting away of the body, such as tuberculosis, pulmonary consumption, etc.
• Pityriasis – A condition of the skin characterized by the formation and falling off of scales; dandruff.
• Pleurisy – An inflammation of the pleura (membrane) that covers the inside of the thorax, accompanied with fever, pain, and cough.
• Podagra – Gout in the feet.
• Poliomyelitis – An inflammation of the anterior horn cells in the gray matter of the spinal cord; infantile paralysis; polio.
• Potter’s asthma – A form of fibroid phthisis to which persons exposed to the dust of the pottery industry are subject.
• Poultice – A soft, hot, moist substance as of flour, meal, bran, flax seed, or similar substances, applied to sores, or inflamed parts of the body.
• Probang – An instrument of whalebone and sponge used for removing obstructions in the throat.
• Prostatitis – Inflammation of the prostate gland.
• Psoas abscess – An abscess of the loin muscle, usually associated with tuberculosis.
• Puerperal exhaustion – The condition of which a woman died during childbirth.
• Puerperal fever -Childbed fever; septic poisoning which sometimes occurred during childbirth.
• Puerperium – A woman’s confinement during and immediately after childbirth.
• Puking fever – Milk sickness.
• Putrid fever – A name for typhus fever or diphtheria.
• Quinine – A bitter, crystalline alkaloid, extracted from cinchona bark, used especially in the treatment of malaria.
• Quinsy – An inflammation of the tonsils accompanied by the formation of pus.
• Remitting fever – Malaria.
• Revulsion – The act of diverting humors or any cause of disease from one part of the body to another.
• Rheumatism – A painful disease affecting muscles and joints, chiefly the larger joints.
• Rickets – A disease of the skeletal system resulting from a deficiency of calcium or vitamin D in the diet, or from lack of sunlight.
• Rigor – A stiffness and rigidity of the body which does not respond to stimuli; shivering or trembling with a chill preceding a fever.
• Rubeola – German measles.
• Sanguinous crust – A scab.
• Sarcoma – Cancer.
• Saxifrage – A medicine that has the property of dissolving stones in the bladder.
• Scarlatina – Scarlet fever; commonly referred to as the canker rash.
• Scarlet fever – A disease in which the body is covered with a red rash first appearing on the neck and breast, and accompanied by a sore throat.
• Scarlet rash – Roseola.
• Sciatica – Rheumatism in the hip.
• Scirrhus – A cancerous tumor on any part of the body, usually made up of fibrous connective tissue.
• Scotomy – Dizziness or nausea, with dimness of sight.
• Scaldhead – A scab infection of the head.
• Scrivener’s palsy – Writer’s cramp.
• Scrofula – A disease, called the King’s Evil, characterized by tumors in the glands of the neck; tuberculosis of lymph glands.
• Scrumpox – A pustular disease of the skin; impetigo.
• Scurvy – A disease characterized by great debility, a pale bloated face, and bleeding spongy gums, indicant to persons who live confined, or on salted meats without fresh vegetables.
• Septicemia – Blood poisoning.
• Sequela – A diseased condition resulting from a previous sickness.
• Shakes – A convulsive trembling, often accompanying intermittent fever, alcoholism, etc.
• Shaking – The ague; a chill.
• Shingles – An acute viral disease marked by small blisters on the skin along the course of a nerve.
• Ship fever – A form of typhus fever.
• Sirasis – An inflammation of the brain, caused by excessive heat of the sun; a frenzy peculiar to children.
• Sloes – Milk sickness.
• Small pox – Contagious disease with fever and blisters.
• Smoker’s patch – A smooth, white patch on the tongue due to excessive smoking.
• Softening of the brain – Apoplexy.
• Spanish influenza – Pandemic influenza.
• Spina Bifida – A deformity of the base of the spine.
• Spital – A hospital for the very poor and those having leprosy or other loathsome diseases.
• Spittle – A hospital.
• Spotted fever – Cerebrospinal meningitis fever, characterized by inflammation of the cerebrospinal membranes; typhus.
• Sprue – A chronic tropical disease characterized by anemia, gastrointestinal disorders, sore throat, etc.
• Stomatitis – Inflammation of the mucous membrane of the mouth.
• Stranger’s fever – Yellow fever.
• Strangury – A difficult and painful discharge of urine.
• Struma – Goiter or scrofula.
• Sudor Anglicus – Sweating sickness.
• Summer complaint – Diarrhea, usually in infants caused by spoiled milk.
• Surgeon – A person who served as a barber, as well as one who practiced medicine.
• Sweating sickness – An acute, infectious, rapidly fatal disease epidemic in England in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
• Syncope – A fainting or loss of consciousness caused by a temporary deficiency of blood to the brain.
• Syphilitica – Pertaining to the disease syphilis.
• Tabes – Slow progressive emaciation of the body or its parts.
• Tansy – A bitter and aromatic plant, used to reduce fever.
• Tartar emetic – A poisonous, white, crystalline salt used to increase perspiration and cause coughing, spitting, and vomiting.
• Tetanus – An infectious disease which attacks the muscles of the neck and lower jaw, caused by the tetanus bacillus, a germ which ordinarily infests the intestines of cattle or horses.
• Tetter – Any of various skin diseases, such as eczema and impetigo.
• Thrombosis – A clot formation inside a blood vessel.
• Thrush – A disease, usually contracted by children, caused by a fungus and characterized by milky-white lesions on the membranes of the mouth, lips, and throat.
• Tincture- A substance with medicinal properties, usually in an alcoholic solvent.
• Trembles – A disease of cattle and sheep caused by eating any of various poisonous weeds and characterized by muscular tremors and a stumbling gait.
• Tuberculosis – Bacterial infection that primarily attacks the lungs, but which may also affect the kidneys, bones, lymph nodes, and brain. Symptoms of TB include coughing, chest pain, shortness of breath, loss of appetite, weight loss, fever, chills, and fatigue.
• Typhus – Infectious fever characterized high fever, headache, and dizziness.
• Ulceration – Loss of the surface covering, such as of skin or the mucous lining, of the intestine.
• Varioloid – A mild form of variola (smallpox) occurring in a person who has had a previous attack or who has been vaccinated.
• Venesection – The opening of a vein for letting blood; phlebotomy.
• Vermifuge – Serving to expel worms and other parasites from the intestinal tract.
• Wasting – Destructive to health or vigor, as a disease; wasting palsy; progressive muscular atrophy.
• Whooping cough – A disease characterized by a convulsive cough, and infecting the mucous membrane of the respiratory system.
• Winter fever – Pneumonia.
• Worm fit – Infantile convulsions, usually a reflex action associated with teething, worms, rickets, fever, or diarrhea.
• Worms – Any of the various ailments caused by the working of a worm or resulting in a worm shaped tumor or growth.