# List off your favorite old-timey disease names! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 9, 2003, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-off-your-favorite-old-timey-disease-names/218010 "2003-12-09T20:57:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![GraphicsGal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e0b2c6/32.png) [@GraphicsGal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GraphicsGal)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2003, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-off-your-favorite-old-timey-disease-names/218010/61 "2003-12-10T17:47:15Z")
I have an uncle who is very big on the family history. When taking me around to all the family graveyards one time, he kept talking about “Column Phantom,” which is what he said a bunch of the early childhood deaths were caused by. I had never heard of this disease and tried to look it up, to no avail. Finally, I was reading a book called “Finding Your Roots” in which the author mentions “Cholera Infantum” was epidemic at about the time these children in my family had died. Interesting how things get altered when passed down in family history. ---
**Author:** ![PbZep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/58f4c7/32.png) [@PbZep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PbZep)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2003, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-off-your-favorite-old-timey-disease-names/218010/62 "2003-12-10T18:03:12Z")
chilblains…much _cooler_ than frostbite. ---
**Author:** ![Earthling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/90db22/32.png) [@Earthling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earthling)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2003, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-off-your-favorite-old-timey-disease-names/218010/63 "2003-12-10T18:18:52Z")
[St. Vitus’s Dance](http://concise.britannica.com/ebc/article?eu=385997) is also known as Sydenham chorea, named after the English physician Thomas Sydenham, who first explained the disease. It is related to Huntington’s disease. ---
**Author:** ![Bookkeeper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bookkeeper/32/281_2.png) [@Bookkeeper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bookkeeper)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2003, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-off-your-favorite-old-timey-disease-names/218010/64 "2003-12-10T19:06:07Z")
What about Gaol Fever? (Typhus - common in crowded prisons.) ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Babbington](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Mr.Babbington](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Babbington)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2003, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-off-your-favorite-old-timey-disease-names/218010/65 "2003-12-11T07:14:14Z")
I can’t believe no one has mentioned gout yet. Henry VIII had it. It must be cool. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2003, 7:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-off-your-favorite-old-timey-disease-names/218010/66 "2003-12-11T07:23:51Z")
My sister used to get impetigo around her mouth all the time as a child, because she loved playing in the dirt. Hmmm, I’ll have to remind her of that tomorrow morning! TEEHEE! ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2003, 7:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-off-your-favorite-old-timey-disease-names/218010/67 "2003-12-11T07:28:52Z")
Oh, and I had a great uncle who died of tetanus when he was five-my gramma was just a baby when it happened. And her younger brother, my Uncle Joe’s first wife died of tuberculosis-this was in the sixties-would it still have been called consumption? ---
**Author:** ![Sigmundex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e19adc/32.png) [@Sigmundex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmundex)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2003, 7:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-off-your-favorite-old-timey-disease-names/218010/68 "2003-12-11T07:52:35Z")
If you don’t have any of the above, you may just have ‘inability to thrive’. I had Mumps when I was a kid, in the 70’s. For Thanksgiving, even. Couldn’t eat a thing, had to have my meals through a straw. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2003, 8:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-off-your-favorite-old-timey-disease-names/218010/69 "2003-12-11T08:23:24Z")
Then there are sheep diseases with names like “the staggers.” In the early days of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM), there was “Inadequate Personality Disorder.” I’ve sometimes had occasion to regret its passing. I have had consumption, but contrary to literature, I did not have a hectic flush and pale skin illuminate as if from within by a fire of creativity &c. That could be because of the Rifampin and INH, which did make all my bodily fluids orange for half a year. ---
**Author:** ![ratty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ccd318/32.png) [@ratty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ratty)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2003, 9:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-off-your-favorite-old-timey-disease-names/218010/70 "2003-12-11T09:21:43Z")
I’m looking at the Bills of Mortality for the city of London in the year 1756. They’ve got some great ones: pleurisy burthen and rupture (I think this means hernia) rising of the lights (not sure, but ‘lights’ is an old term for lungs, so maybe some sort of respiratory disorder?) water on the brain (hydrocephaly) horseshoe head (?) St. Anthony’s Fire (?) purples (maybe peurperal fever, common in women who’ve just given birth) stoppage of the bowels ague king’s evil (scrofula) pox (both great and small) choked with fat (?) phthisis (I think this is another respiratory disorder) worms flux (probably dysentery or some other diarrheal malady) fever (by far the most numerous) palsy (trembling of some kind) Some more olde-tyme favorites: thrush (yeast infection of the mouth; I think babies can still get it) blackwater fever (maybe malaria) jungle or trench rot (really gnarly foot fungus) woolsorter’s or ragpicker’s disease (anthrax) galloping pneumonia purefinder’s disease (some sort of horrible neurological disease got from picking up dog poop) cheesecutter thighs (severe leg deformity caused by rickets) Some favorite exotics: kwashiorkor (not sure, but I think it’s some kind of vitamin deficiency) river blindness (?) o’nyong-nyong (some kind of fever) tsutsugamushi (Japanese scrub typhus) The absolute best are diseases of livestock: rinderpest scrapie rot glanders gleet wind galls staggers founder bumblefoot elf-struck I’m also strangely attracted to the phrase “sucking chest wound”. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2003, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-off-your-favorite-old-timey-disease-names/218010/71 "2003-12-11T17:18:49Z")
People with HIV, or other immune disorders, get thrush. ---
**Author:** ![NurseCarmen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5daacb/32.png) [@NurseCarmen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NurseCarmen)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2003, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-off-your-favorite-old-timey-disease-names/218010/72 "2003-12-11T17:35:39Z")
> [@](#): > > _recently expelled by ratty_ > thrush (yeast infection of the mouth; I think babies can still get it) I had that when I was eighteen. 15 or so years ago. I wasn’t hanging out with any babies. I will let you assume what well known yeasty area I may or may not have been frequenting. I had no immune disorders. ---
**Author:** ![LabRat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/898d66/32.png) [@LabRat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LabRat)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2003, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-off-your-favorite-old-timey-disease-names/218010/73 "2003-12-11T18:00:34Z")
Dropsy is edema in a lower limb, but it’s just a symptom of the real problem which is congestive heart failure. The earlier info about scrofula is correct, including the part about the “King’s Evil”. It’s regarded by some historians as the origin of faith healing. Scrofula itself is a tuberculosis infection that affects the lymph nodes in your neck. Ague, IIRC is an old term for palsy or trembling hands. Blackwater fever is malaria and still happens. It’s named for the dark color that the patient’s urine turns as your kidneys shut down. Kwashiorkor is a protein deficiency that causes child famine victims to look potbellied among other horrible things. Pellagra still happens a lot. It’s new home is in inner cities where people don’t get a lot of non-processed food. IIRC, it’s weirdest symptom is that your tongue turns purple. Oh yeah, brain damage too… Failure to Thrive is unfortunately still with us. You see it as a chief complaint on a lot of kid’s charts. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2003, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-off-your-favorite-old-timey-disease-names/218010/74 "2003-12-11T19:40:39Z")
St. Anthony’s Fire is caused by rye ergot. It can cause hallucinations, convulsions, miscarriages, and death. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2003, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-off-your-favorite-old-timey-disease-names/218010/75 "2003-12-11T20:17:51Z")
“Fistulous Withers” sounds like the villain in a Frank Capra movie. “Camp Fever” sounds like a gay dance show. “Puking Fever?” OK, that has to be the _worst._ “Eel Thing?!” It makes mah heart sing . . . ---
**Author:** ![kimfair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/278dde/32.png) [@kimfair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kimfair)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2003, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-off-your-favorite-old-timey-disease-names/218010/76 "2003-12-11T21:48:58Z")
Chancroids - soft chancre , sore, or ulcer Chagoma - the skin lesion in acute Chagas disease I just opened my medical dictionary and came across this classic as well bradyspermatism - absence of ejaculatory force ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2003, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-off-your-favorite-old-timey-disease-names/218010/77 "2003-12-12T07:21:59Z")
What about porphyria? It used to run in the royal families of Europe-even worse than hemophilia. That’s what made George III go mad and it’s what killed his granddaughter, Princess Charlotte, which resulted in the race for an heir that produced the princess who would be Queen Victoria. ---
**Author:** ![xayoz306](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/bc8723/32.png) [@xayoz306](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xayoz306)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2003, 8:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-off-your-favorite-old-timey-disease-names/218010/78 "2003-12-12T08:31:34Z")
I have read about fistula’s, but I have no clue what they are… ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2003, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-off-your-favorite-old-timey-disease-names/218010/79 "2003-12-12T16:53:38Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by lieu \* > \*\*The croup. Beats the hell outta me what it is but the name’s way cool. \*\* Croup is still a common illness in children. Their airways are small and what gives us a sore throat can close the airway of a baby. The most serious cause is epiglotitis **Dropsy** is now known as congestive heart failure. Symptoms are swelling of the lower extremities, shortness of breath, fatigue. **Syphillis** (once known as the Pox or Great Pox) is still very much with us, as is Gonnorhea. > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Guinastasia \* > \*\*Cholera, typhoid, typhus, scarlet fever, consumption. > > And even though it’s not really old anymore, I like talking about influenza, rather than the flu. > > Women also had hysteria, and “nervous conditions”. \*\* Typhoid and Typhus still exist, ask anyone in the military about the vaccinations! Scarlet fever was a complication of untreated strep infections so was rhumatic fever, neither are seen very often anymore due to early treatment of strep A. Influenza is the medical term for flu My contributions are: Lock Jaw (tetanus) St Vitus’ Dance (Huntington’s Chorea) & Dipsomania (Alcoholism) ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2003, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-off-your-favorite-old-timey-disease-names/218010/80 "2003-12-12T17:22:04Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by xayoz306 \* > \*\*I have read about fistula’s, but I have no clue what they are… \*\* A Fistula is an unnatural passageway between structures lying close to each other. Fistulas between the rectum and vagina often form in advanced cancer of the cervix. Patients with renal (kidney) failure may have an ArterioVenous fistula made by the doctor to facillitate dialysis. Porphyria is a group of complex diseases some aquired but many forms are inherited. Porphrins are special pigments that are essential to various metabolic processes. Porphyrias are rare, the most common is associated with advanced liver disease & cirrhosis. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-off-your-favorite-old-timey-disease-names/218010.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-off-your-favorite-old-timey-disease-names/218010.md?page=5)