I’m keen on consumption, which was what I came in here to post.
But now that I’ve heard some of yours, I think I’ll add dropsy to the list. It sounds like a problem involving the hand - you can’t hold on to anything!
“The vapors” - I have that. It’s called Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) now.
Methinks thou has the Blue Devils.
I thought that that was hypothyroidism.
Isn’t hyperthyroidism called something along the lines of Gray’s disease?
Fistulous withers.
Hey! I always thought the vapors was the farts.
Learn something new every day.
water brash, puerile respirations, scorbutus, crowing disease, running at the loins, rupia, sudamina, whites, running at the reins…
They go on and on. They’re all lifted from the “Medical Adviser” by R. Thompson, circa 1860.
I thought lumbago was the “forbidden dance”…
You are correct, hebesphenomegacorona, hypothyroidism is cretinism. Dammit, that’ll teach me to use Google before trusting my memory.
I always thought syphilis (spelling)? sounded pretty nasty. I don’t have it by the way.
Grave’s disease is a form of hyperthyroidism.
Cretinism is still used methinks and refers to hypothyroidism.
My all time favorite:
pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis.
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”.
Don’t forget quinsy and it’s-gotta’- be-bad-cause-it-sounds-bad scrofula.
[nitpick] Graves’ disease, named after Irish physician R. J. Graves.
I remember hearing a recording of this song as part of a high-school history class on the American Civil War. Ticerdolerreou is actually tic douloureux, a severe stabbing pain afflicting one side of the face.
Yaws is a funny-sounding name for a rather serious tropical disease sometimes characterized by destructive lesions of the skin and bones. The attendant raspberrylike skin eruptions are responsible for the illness’s alternate name, frambesia (from French framboise, raspberry).
I read in Asimov that the Greeks called cancer the stinking death.
How about old school Hysteria? And to think, you had to go to a doctor to get “the treatment”; now, it is easily acquired OTC.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0801859417/inktomi-bkasin-20/ref%3Dnosim/002-8879366-1024029
Im a fan of scurvy. I have a friend who went down to Florida for school. He needed something to do, so he figured his choices were to give himself scurvy, or go vegetarian. He decided to go vegetarian, the wuss.
Also, pellagra is a good one.
Then there’s the good old Black Death, rickets, hysteria, leprosy, the “Great Pox,” syphillis, and malaria.
Malaria, which they used to call “Roman Fever.”
EBOLA (HAEMORRHAGIC FEVER)
one of the most virulent viral diseases known to humankind, causing death in 50-90% of all clinically ill cases.
Symptoms: Ebola is often characterized by the sudden onset of fever, weakness, muscle pain, headache and sore throat. This is followed by vomiting, diarrhoea, rash, limited kidney and liver functions, and both internal and external bleeding.
I actually have dropsy. Also Pickwickian syndrome.