# Chilblains? Seriously, \_Chilblains\_!? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 24, 2013, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chilblains-seriously-_chilblains_/674673 "2013-11-24T15:24:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Rysdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7cd45c/32.png) [@Rysdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysdad)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2013, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chilblains-seriously-_chilblains_/674673/21 "2013-11-26T03:12:10Z")
> [@purplehorseshoe](#): > > How is that pronounced? “ah-GYOO” or “AHG-oo” or some other way? Merriam says it’s pronounced: \ˈā-(ˌ)gyü\ It would be cooler if it was “ah-gway”, though. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2013, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chilblains-seriously-_chilblains_/674673/22 "2013-11-26T03:24:11Z")
When I was a kid, they told us not to sit on cold concrete or we’d get piles from it. ---
**Author:** ![Man\_With\_a\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/cab0a1/32.png) [@Man\_With\_a\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Man_With_a_Cat)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2013, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chilblains-seriously-_chilblains_/674673/23 "2013-11-26T04:18:57Z")
I got a rash on my butt. ---
**Author:** ![Chicken\_Fingers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Chicken\_Fingers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chicken_Fingers)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2013, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chilblains-seriously-_chilblains_/674673/24 "2013-11-27T02:16:38Z")
I thought only governesses got chilblains. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2013, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chilblains-seriously-_chilblains_/674673/25 "2013-11-27T14:14:32Z")
> [@Chicken\_Fingers](#): > > I thought only governesses got chilblains. Exactly. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2013, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chilblains-seriously-_chilblains_/674673/26 "2013-11-27T17:02:57Z")
I’m not a governess, and I have a couple of chillblains. I also have dropsy. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2013, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chilblains-seriously-_chilblains_/674673/27 "2013-11-27T17:31:23Z")
> [@johnpost](#): > > alcohol cures all of them. > [@VinylTurnip](#): > > Yeah, but it gives you the gout. Don’t I know it.☹ I had an encounter with gout in June. I was told I had to give up beer, but in fact my intake increased slightly just to give my toe the finger. Woke up this am in agony. Occurrence number two. On the bright side; if I can drink lots of beer and consume whatever I like and still only get two episodes a year, I’m happy. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2013, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chilblains-seriously-_chilblains_/674673/28 "2013-11-27T17:46:59Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > You forgot shingles. “Ague” is just another name for flu, by the way. I thought ague was malaria. ---
**Author:** ![FlyingRat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/59ef9b/32.png) [@FlyingRat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlyingRat)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2013, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chilblains-seriously-_chilblains_/674673/29 "2013-11-27T18:12:51Z")
> [@KRC](#): > > I just call everything I don’t understand “Swine flu.” For me, it’s the “Peruvian Hamsterpox”. ---
**Author:** ![Mauvaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mauvaise/32/11084_2.png) [@Mauvaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mauvaise)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2013, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chilblains-seriously-_chilblains_/674673/30 "2013-11-27T18:26:07Z")
> [@lorene](#): > > This gives me the vapors just to read about. > > I had pleurisy a few years ago and it was absolute agony. I had pleurisy a couple years ago and mine wasn’t that bad. I did have the same reaction as the OP did to having chilblains upon diagnosis. > [@KRC](#): > > I just call everything I don’t understand “Swine flu.” For me it’s “Ebola”. I especially like it when I come down with the 24-hour Ebola. ---
**Author:** ![Kenm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bc79bd/32.png) [@Kenm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kenm)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2013, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chilblains-seriously-_chilblains_/674673/31 "2013-11-27T18:33:43Z")
No one gets the once-popular brain fever anymore. It stalked Sherlock Holmes’ London. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2013, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chilblains-seriously-_chilblains_/674673/32 "2013-11-27T20:01:22Z")
> [@FlyingRat](#): > > For me, it’s the “Peruvian Hamsterpox”. My go-to disease is the Creeping Crud. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2013, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chilblains-seriously-_chilblains_/674673/33 "2013-11-28T00:23:37Z")
> [@Kenm](#): > > No one gets the once-popular brain fever anymore. It stalked Sherlock Holmes’ London. Cured by inventing ice cream. Though if you overdo it you go beyond counteracting brain fever and instead contract brain freeze. ---
**Author:** ![Wile\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2013, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chilblains-seriously-_chilblains_/674673/34 "2013-11-28T00:35:30Z")
When I was a kid I remember my mother saying stuff like “bundle up or you’ll get chillblains” but we never knew what chillblains were. I’ve probably had these and never knew it. Funny, I always thought these old timey conditions were ultimately caused by kids on your lawn. ---
**Author:** ![Ellen\_Cherry](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellen_cherry/32/3600_2.png) [@Ellen\_Cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellen_Cherry)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2013, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chilblains-seriously-_chilblains_/674673/35 "2013-11-28T01:55:11Z")
So what is piles? Hemmeroids? ---
**Author:** ![Wile\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2013, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chilblains-seriously-_chilblains_/674673/36 "2013-11-28T02:47:59Z")
> [@Ellen\_Cherry](#): > > So what is piles? Hemmeroids? Yep. Hemorrhoids. ---
**Author:** ![Defensive\_Indifference](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/defensive_indifference/32/6502_2.png) [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2013, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chilblains-seriously-_chilblains_/674673/37 "2013-11-28T05:45:14Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > Now all I have to worry about is grippe, pleurisy, dropsy, lumbago, croup [snip] My two year old had croup a couple of times. It was scary as hell. Hearing him bark like a seal at 2:00 AM was not an experience I want to repeat anytime soon. When I was a kid, and I would be especially clumsy and drop a few things in a short timespan, my mother would tell me I must have dropsy. I knew she was joking but didn’t know what dropsy really was until many years later. ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2013, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chilblains-seriously-_chilblains_/674673/38 "2013-11-28T16:10:57Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > “Ague” is just another name for flu, by the way. No,it isn’t. Ague refers to violent shivering, which can be a symptom of influenza, but can also be a symptom of many other illnesses including especially malaria. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2013, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chilblains-seriously-_chilblains_/674673/39 "2013-11-28T18:50:39Z")
> [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](#): > > No,it isn’t. Ague refers to violent shivering, which can be a symptom of influenza, but can also be a symptom of many other illnesses including especially malaria. Indeed, when I researched those names I discovered that most of those “diseases” are what we now call symptoms, albeit symptoms widely associated with certain diseases: [ul] [li]AGUE Used to define the recurring fever & chills of malarial infection[/li][li]CHILBLAIN Swelling of extremities caused by exposure to cold[/li][li]COLIC An abdominal pain and cramping[/li][li]CROUP Laryngitis, diphtheria, or strep throat[/li][li]DROPSY Edema (swelling), often caused by kidney or heart disease[/li][li]FLUX An excessive flow or discharge of fluid like hemorrhage or diarrhea[/li][li]GRIPPE Influenza like symptoms[/li][li]LUMBAGO Back pain[/li][li]PLEURISY Any pain in the chest area with each breath[/li][/ul] See [Old Time Disease Names](http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~njmorris/general_info/disease.htm) ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2013, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chilblains-seriously-_chilblains_/674673/40 "2013-11-29T00:15:23Z")
The servants in Victorian novels always got chilblains, especially the milkmaids who had to suffer cold hands while making butter and cheese. The cure? A pot of goose grease. (To rub on, not eat.) The lady of the house often suffered from The Vapors. The cure? Smelling salts and loosening the stays of her corset. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chilblains-seriously-_chilblains_/674673.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chilblains-seriously-_chilblains_/674673.md?page=3)