Obtained from National Civil War Medical Museum
Submitted by Vernon Drewa
AGUE: Chills associated with fever; archaic term for malarial fever.
ANASARCA: A generalized infiltration of edema fluid into subcutaneous connective tissue.
ANTHRAX: A disease caused by infection of cutaneous anthrax characterized by hemorrhage in various organs and body cavities, with symptoms of severe prostration.
APOPLEXY: Obsolete term for cerebral stroke, most often due to hemorrhage.
ASTHENIA: Weakness or debility.
BILIOUS REMITTENT FEVER: Archaic term for relapsing fever characterized by bilious vomiting and diarrhea.
BUBOE/ BUBO: Inflammatory swelling of one or more lymph nodes, usually in the groin, usually suppurating.
CAMP FEVER: This term was used for all of the continuing fevers experienced by the army: Typhoid Fever, Malarial Remittent Fever, and Typho-malarial Fever. The last named is a combination of elements from the first two diseases. This combination, Typho-malarial Fever, was the characteristic "camp fever" during the Civil War. Symptoms included: a pronounced chill followed by an intermittent fever, abdominal tenderness and nausea, general debility, diarrhea, retention of urine, and furring of the tongue.
CARDITIS: Inflammation of the heart.
CATARRH: Inflammation of the mucous membranes with increased flow of mucous.
CEPHALALGIA: Headache.
CICATRIZED/ CICATRIX: Healed, formation of scar.
COMMINUTED: Broken into several pieces.
CONSUMPTION: Tuberculosis (also called Phthisis).
CONTINUED FEVER: Obsolete term for fever without the intermittency of malaria; many cases were likely typhoid fever.
CORYZA: Inflammation of the nasal mucous membranes in an allergic individual; common cold.
DELIRIUM TREMENS: A severe and sometimes fatal form of delirium, due to alcoholic withdrawal following a period of sustained intoxication.
DIPHTHERIA: Acute bacterial illness characterized by sore throat and fever; serious and even fatal complications can occur.
DROPSY: Archaic word for edema; abnormal accumulation of fluid in cells, tissues, or cavities of the body.
DYSENTERY: Various intestinal diseases with inflammation of the bowels, abdominal pain, and bloody diarrhea.
EDEMA: An accumulation of an excessive amount of watery fluid in cells, tissues, or cavities.
ENDOCARDITIS: Inflammation of the heart.
ERYSIPELAS: Acute inflammation of the skin and subcutaneous tissue caused by streptococcus bacteria; characterized by reddening and severe inflammation, can lead to pustules. Usually accompanied by severe constitutional symptoms.
FISTULA: Forming an abnormal hollow passage from an abscess or cavity to the skin or an organ.
GANGRENE: Necrosis due to lack of blood supply.
GRANULATIONS: The formation of a small granular mass on a wound that is healing.
HEMIPLEGIA: Paralysis of one side of the body.
HEMOPTYSIS: The spitting of blood derived from the lungs or bronchial tubes as a result of pulmonary or bronchial hemorrhage.
HYDROCELE: A collection of serous fluid in the testes.
HYPERTROPHY: Enlargement.
HYPOSTASIS: Settling of blood in the lower portion of the body due to decreased blood flow.
INTERMITTENT FEVER: A fever that has intervals of complete cessation of symptoms between periods of activity. Often intermittent malarial fever.
QUATERNARY: Symptoms recur every 72 hours.
TERTIARY: Symptoms recur every 48 hours.
IPECACUANHA: Ipecac, dried root of plant, has expectorant, emetic, and anti-dysenteric properties.
LAUDANUM: Tincture of opium.
MALARIA: Disease characterized by cycles of chills and high fever, headache; spread by mosquitoes.
NECROSIS: The death of tissue cells.
NEPHRITIS: Inflammation of the kidneys.
NEURALGIA: Pain in nerves; generalized pain.
NOSTALGIA: Longing to return home or to another time in one's life.
OPHTHALMIA: Severe, often purulent, inflammation of the deep structures of the eye.
ORCHITIS: Inflammation of the testicles.
OTORRHOEA/ OTORRHEA: Drainage from the ear.
OZENA: Disease characterized by intra-nasal crusting, atrophy, and fetid odor.
PAROTITIS: Inflammation of the salivary glands near the ear.
PERICARDITIS: Inflammation of the sac enclosing the heart.
PERNICIOUS FEVER: A fever of unknown origin.
PERIOSTITIS: Inflammation of the membrane covering the bones.
PERITONITIS: Inflammation of the membrane lining the abdominal cavity.
PHTHISIS: Tuberculosis (also called Consumption).
PILES: Hemorrhoids.
PLEURITIS (PLEURISY): Inflammation of the membrane enveloping the lungs.
PYEMIA: Infection of the blood causing pus-producing abscesses.
REMITTENT FEVER: A fever where the temperature varies during each 24 hour period but is never normal. Not truly characteristic of any one disease, but used as a diagnosis in the nineteenth century.
RESECTION: Removal of part of the bone, usually the articular end of one or both bones forming a joint.
RHEUMATIC FEVER: Infectious disease causing fever, pain, swelling of the joints, and inflammation of the valves of the heart.
RHEUMATISM: Chronic inflammation of the joints; also an obsolete term for rheumatic fever.
RUBEOLA: Measles.
ST. VITAS DANCE: Disorder of the central nervous system characterized by involuntary jerky movements, usually follows an attack of rheumatic fever; now called Sydenham's Chorea.
SCORBUTIC ULCERS: Ulcers caused by scurvy.
SCROFULA: Tuberculosis of the lymphatic glands especially of the neck, characterized by the enlargement and degeneration of the glands.
SCURVY: A disease marked by debility, anemia, edema, and ulceration of the gums, due to a lack of Vitamin C.
SLOUGHING: Dead tissue separating from the surrounding tissue.
SMALLPOX: An acute, eruptive, contagious disease caused by a virus and marked by an onset of chills, high fever, backache and headache. Skin eruptions appear in two to five days.
STRICTURE: The abnormal narrowing of a canal, duct, or passage.
SUPPURATING/ SUPPURATIVE: To form or discharge pus.
SYPHILIS: A venereal disease caused by a spirochete which consists of three phases.
PRIMARY: Characterized by a hard chancre on the genitals;
SECONDARY: Characterized by eruptions on the skin and mucous membranes and the generalized enlargement of the lymph nodes;
TERTIARY: Characterized by the infection and disablement of bones, muscles, and nerve tissue.
TETANUS: An acute infectious disease caused by the toxins of a bacillus which usually enters the body through wounds. Characterized by spasmodic contractions and rigidity of the voluntary muscles. Often fatal.
TUBERCULOSIS: Infectious disease causing tubercles in the lungs, characterized by fever, weakness, and emaciation.
TYPHOID FEVER: Acute infectious disease characterized by continued rising fever, physical and mental depression, rose-colored spots, loss of appetite, and dry mouth with furred tongue.
TYPHOID PNEUMONIA: Pneumonia as a complication of typhoid fever.
TYPHUS: A group of acute infectious diseases characterized by severe fever, chills, weakness, joint ache and headache. Similar to Typhoid Fever. See Camp Fever.
VARICOCELE: Cystic enlargement of the veins of the spermatic cord.
VARIOLA: Smallpox.
VERATRUM VIRIDE: Medicine derived from the hellebore, a member of the lily family with poisonous root stocks.
VUL. SCLOPETICUM: Latin; gunshot wound.
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