# Dropsey, Quinsey, The Clap, Consumption **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 31, 2000, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dropsey-quinsey-the-clap-consumption/9562 "2000-03-31T03:49:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2000, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dropsey-quinsey-the-clap-consumption/9562/1 "2000-03-31T03:49:00Z")
I know that consumption is TB and I think quinsey is some sort of strep (or am I wrong) but what are The Clap and Dropsey. Also what are some famous dieases and their real names. Oh thought of another one. Hanson (or is it Henson’s) disease = leprosy ---
**Author:** ![sorrel554](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/91b2a8/32.png) [@sorrel554](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sorrel554)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2000, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dropsey-quinsey-the-clap-consumption/9562/2 "2000-03-31T04:17:00Z")
Says here that dropsy is the “pathological accumulation of diluted lymph in body tissues and cavities.” That goes along with my WAG, which was that it had to do with swelling/edema. ---
**Author:** ![sorrel554](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/91b2a8/32.png) [@sorrel554](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sorrel554)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2000, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dropsey-quinsey-the-clap-consumption/9562/3 "2000-03-31T04:22:00Z")
Also according to the dictionary, clap = gonorrhea. Quinsy: acute inflammation of the tonsils and the surrounding tissues. ---
**Author:** ![aseymayo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a88e57/32.png) [@aseymayo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aseymayo)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2000, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dropsey-quinsey-the-clap-consumption/9562/4 "2000-03-31T04:26:00Z")
Clap is gonorrhea. And it’s Hansen’s - en. ---
**Author:** ![justwannano](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7ab992/32.png) [@justwannano](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/justwannano)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2000, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dropsey-quinsey-the-clap-consumption/9562/5 "2000-03-31T04:33:00Z")
Is Dropsy the one where old ladies calves swell up like with fluid. ---
**Author:** ![Stonecutter912](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5fc32e/32.png) [@Stonecutter912](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stonecutter912)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2000, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dropsey-quinsey-the-clap-consumption/9562/6 "2000-03-31T05:15:00Z")
I thought dropsy was epilepsy. An old song called “Hospitality Blues” suggests it… ---
**Author:** ![Stonecutter912](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5fc32e/32.png) [@Stonecutter912](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stonecutter912)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2000, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dropsey-quinsey-the-clap-consumption/9562/7 "2000-03-31T05:17:00Z")
Nope, hang on, that’s St. Vitus’ Dance. The song goes something like “My chances of getting any rest looked bad, cuz…one had consumption, the other St. Vitus’ Dance.” So dropsy, I dunno… ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2000, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dropsey-quinsey-the-clap-consumption/9562/8 "2000-03-31T05:18:00Z")
Ah! But do y’all know what dyspepsia is? (no lookin’ in the dictionary, neither!) ---
**Author:** ![Stonecutter912](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5fc32e/32.png) [@Stonecutter912](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stonecutter912)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2000, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dropsey-quinsey-the-clap-consumption/9562/9 "2000-03-31T05:20:00Z")
Heartburn or indigestion, I think. Or something to do with the guts, anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2000, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dropsey-quinsey-the-clap-consumption/9562/10 "2000-03-31T05:27:00Z")
You got it. Dyspepsia was a catch-all term used in the 19th century to describe digestion problems. ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2000, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dropsey-quinsey-the-clap-consumption/9562/11 "2000-03-31T05:29:00Z")
Okay, here’s another one: Why would I het offended if you called me “hysterical.” ---
**Author:** ![justwannano](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7ab992/32.png) [@justwannano](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/justwannano)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2000, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dropsey-quinsey-the-clap-consumption/9562/12 "2000-03-31T05:51:00Z")
I was right-First time today. Dropsy is also known as edema. A build up of fluids. Swelling of the ankles occurs Quite commonly. Relieved by resting and elevating legs. Diuretics are also used. ---
**Author:** ![phouka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c5a1d2/32.png) [@phouka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phouka)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2000, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dropsey-quinsey-the-clap-consumption/9562/13 "2000-03-31T14:14:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally posted by Green Bean: > \*\*Okay, here’s another one: > > Why would I het offended if you called me “hysterical.”\*\* Well, since “hysterical” pretty much means exhibiting symptoms of possessing a uterus (hysterium), I guess you’d get insulted if you were a man. Only women can get hysterical, and only men can testify. ---
**Author:** ![lvick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d07c76/32.png) [@lvick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lvick)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2000, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dropsey-quinsey-the-clap-consumption/9562/14 "2000-03-31T16:17:00Z")
Continuing the trivia quiz: What condition was known as “the old man’s friend,” and why? Who was known as the “Captain of the Little Men of Death.” ---
**Author:** ![aha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eada6e/32.png) [@aha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aha)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2000, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dropsey-quinsey-the-clap-consumption/9562/15 "2000-03-31T16:38:00Z")
pneumonia? * * * Yours truly, aha ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2000, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dropsey-quinsey-the-clap-consumption/9562/16 "2000-03-31T16:51:00Z")
Psychiatrists who couldn’t figure out what was wrong with someone used to just write it off to “dementia precox.” TB also used to be known as the White Plague or phthisis (this last used mostly for the comical spitting effect, I’ll bet). How about “the vapors?” Ivick—I think “the old man’s friend” is also referred to as “Catherine Zeta-Jones.” ---
**Author:** ![Holly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/48db29/32.png) [@Holly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Holly)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2000, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dropsey-quinsey-the-clap-consumption/9562/17 "2000-03-31T17:04:00Z")
> [@](#): > > What condition was known as “the old man’s friend,” and why? Gout? Maybe because the condition is exascerbated by eating and drinking stuff that old men like? Here’s an easy one: what’s “tired blood”? To quote an advertisement postcard I found in one of my old medical books: INVALID LADIES this is for you. There are thousands of females in America who suffer untold miseries from chronic diseases common to their sex. This is largely to the peculiar habits of life and fashion, and the improper training of girlhood. Then, too, the physical changes that mark the three eras of womanhood (the maiden, the wife and the mother,) have much to do with their sufferings, most of which is endured in silence, unknown by even the family physician and most intimate friends. To all such whose hollow cheeks, pale faces, sunken eyes and feeble footsteps indicate nervous and general debility bordering on consumption, we would earnestly recommend that grand system renovating tonic, BURDOCK BLOOD BITTERS, it makes pure, healthy blood, and regulates all the organs to a proper action, cures constipation, liver and kidney complaint, female weakness, nervous and general debility, and all the distressing miseries from which two-thirds of the women of America are suffering. Sounds like a bargain to me! ---
**Author:** ![plnnr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@plnnr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plnnr)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2000, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dropsey-quinsey-the-clap-consumption/9562/18 "2000-04-01T06:59:00Z")
Famous TB deaths are pretty well recorded, don’t know if I’ve ever heard of anyone famous dying of the clap (syphillis, yes - ate Al Capone’s brain into a piece of swiss cheese), but did you know that none other than George Washington, father of our country, died of “quinsey?” That little bit of information was “free for the cost of your tuition” as one of my history profs used to say. ---
**Author:** ![Trout\_Mask\_Replica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a88e57/32.png) [@Trout\_Mask\_Replica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trout_Mask_Replica)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2000, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dropsey-quinsey-the-clap-consumption/9562/19 "2000-03-31T19:08:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally posted by Holly: > **Here’s an easy one: what’s “tired blood”?** Some kind of anemia, maybe? * * * TMR Birth. School. Work. Death. ---
**Author:** ![redtail23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/3e96dc/32.png) [@redtail23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/redtail23)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2000, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dropsey-quinsey-the-clap-consumption/9562/20 "2000-03-31T19:49:00Z")
the vapors = fainting or dizziness, generally from the era of corsets which restricted breathing so greatly as to cause the vapors tired blood = anemia, (iron deficiency, I think) I’ve got a friend with mild gout; he’s only 35ish. Apparently there’s a significant hereditary factor in gout. ## so Ivick, what’s the answers??? The adage “Knowledge is Power” is incorrect. The correct formulation is “Knowledge _that other people don’t have_ is Power”. - **The Donald** [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dropsey-quinsey-the-clap-consumption/9562.md?page=2)