| Medical term | Description |
| Abscess | A localized collection of pus buried in tissues, organs, or confined, spaces of the body, often accompanied by swelling andinflammation |
| Accoucheur | A man who acts as a midwife. |
| Accoucheuse | A midwife. |
| Acescency | A tendency to sourness; incipient or slight acidity. |
| Addison's disease | A disease characterized by severe weakness, low blood pressure, and a bronzed coloration of the skin, due to decreased secretion of cortisol. |
| Advert | Used here in the archaic connotation: to turn one's attention toward, to take heed of, to observe. |
| Ague | Used to describe the recurring fever and chills of malarial infection |
| Ague-cake | A form of enlargement of the spleen, resulting from the actionof malaria on the system. |
| Alvine | Of or pertaining to the bowels. |
| American Plague | yellow fever |
| Anasarca | Generalized massive dropsy. See dropsy. |
| Anile | Late Middle English: of or like an old woman; imbecile. |
| Aperient | A laxative medicine or food. |
| Aphonia | Laryngitis |
| Aphthae | See thrush. |
| Aphthous stomatitis | See canker. |
| Apoplexy | [Late Middle English, through Late Latin from Greek apoplexia] 1 A sudden loss of sensation and movement due to a disturbance of blood supply to the brain; a stroke. 2 With specifying word: a haemorrhage or failure of blood supply in another organ or part. Now rare or obsolete. |
| Ascites | See dropsy. |
| Asthenia | See debility. |
| Atrophy of liver | Any kind of wasting or diminshed function and could be applied to other organs |
| Avoirdupois | A system of weights based on a pound (avoirdupois pound) of 16 ounces or 7000 grains. |
| Azote | Nitrogen. |
| Bad blood | Syphilis |
| Bilious fever | A term loosely applied to certain intestinal and malarial fevers. See typhus. |
| Biliousness | A complex of symptoms comprising nausea, abdominal discomfort,headache, and constipation--formerly attributed to excessive secretion of bile from the liver. |
| Bistoury | A surgeon's instrument, used in making incisions, of which there are three sorts; the blade of the first turns like that of a lancet; but the straight bistoury has the blade fixed in the handle; the crooked bistoury is shaped like a half moon, having the edge on the inside. [Johnson's Dictionary, 9th Edition, 1806] |
| Blood poisoning | Septicemia |
| Boil | An abscess of skin or painful inflammation of the skin or a hair |
| Brain fever | See meningitis, typhus. |
| Bright's Disease | Glomerulonephritis (kidney inflammation) |
| Bronchial asthma | A disorder of breathing, characterized by spasm of the bronchial tubes of the lungs, wheezing, and difficulty in breathing air |
| Camp Fever | Typhus |
| Cancer | A malignant and invasive growth or tumor. In the nineteenth century, cancerous tumors tended to ulcerate, grew constantly |
| Cancrum oris | A severe, destructive, eroding ulcer of the cheek and lip. In he last century it was seen in delicate, ill-fed, ill-tended children |
| Canine Madness | Hydrophobia |
| Canker | An ulcerous sore of the mouth and lips, not considered fatal today. |
| Catalepsy | seizures/trances |
| Catamenia | The menstrual discharge. |
| Cataplasm | Poultice. |
| Catarrh | Inflammation of a mucous membrane, especially of the air passages |
| Cerate [ | from cera, Latin, wax] A medicine made of wax, which, with oil, or some softer substance, makes a consistence softer than a plaster. [Johnson's Dictionary, 9th Edition, 1806] |
| Chincough | Whooping cough |
| Chlorosis | Iron deficiency anemia |
| Choke-damp | Asphyxiating gas, largely carbon dioxide, accumulated in a mine, well, etc. |
| Cholera | An acute, infectious disease characterized by profuse diarrhea, |
| Cholera infantum | A common, noncontagious diarrhea of young children |
| Chorea | Any of several diseases of the nervous system, characterized by |
| Cicatrized | Scarred. |
| Climacteric or climacterick | Pertaining to or constituting a critical period in human life; also had a medical sense meaning (in females) occurring at or characteristic of menopause, or (in males) the period when fertility and libido are in decline. Grand climateric designated the 63rd year of life, supposed to be especially critical. |
| Close | Used here in one of the older senses: severe, rigorous, confined, airless, stifling. |
| Clyster I | njection, enema. |
| Cocker | Pamper, indulge, coddle. |
| Colic | Paroxysmal pain in the abdomen or bowels. Infantile colic is benign |
| Congestion | An excessive or abnormal accumulation of blood or other fluid |
| Congestive Fever | malaria |
| Consumption | A wasting away of the body; formerly applied especially to pulmonary tuberculosis. |
| Convulsions | Severe contortion of the body caused by violent, involuntary muscular contrcations |
| Corals in their hands | "Red coral was regarded as the proper material for a baby to cut its teeth on from the Middle Ages until the end of the nineteenth century, when it was supplanted by hard rubber and then by plastics. A child's teething stick was often referred to as a coral." Thanks to Susan C. Mitchell for this information. |
| Corruption | Infection |
| Coryza | A cold |
| Costive | Here meaning constipated; elsewhere may mean reticent, slow, niggardly, etc. |
| Costiveness | Constipation |
| Cramp Colic | Appendicitis |
| Cretinism | Hypothyroidism, congenital |
| Croup | Hoarse croaking cough associated with inflammation of the larynx and trachea in children |
| Debility | Abnormal bodily weakness or feebleness; decay of strength. This |
| Diphtheria | An acute infectious disease off the upper respuratory tract |
| Distemper | Used here in the historical sense: Disturbed condition of the body or mind; ill health, illness; a mental or physical disorder; a disease or ailment. |
| Downy | Evidently used here in the sense of the old slang phrase To do the downy i.e. to lie in bed. |
| Dropsy | A contraction for hydropsy. The presence of abnormally large amounts of fluid. Congestive heart failure |
| Dysentery | A term given to a number of disorders marked by inflammation of the intestines (especially of the colon) |
| Dyspepsia | Acid indigestion |
| Eclampsia | A form of toxemia (toxins--or poisons--in the blood) |
| Electuary | A form of medicine made of conserves and powders, in the consistence of honey. |
| Embrocate. | To rub any part diseased with medicinal liquors. [Johnson's Dictionary, 9th Edition, 1806] |
| Emphysema, pulmonary | A chronic, irreversible disease of the lungs. |
| Empirics | Used here with the archaic connotation: a person who practises medicine without scientific knowledge; a quack; a charlatan. |
| Enteric fever | See typhoid fever. |
| Epilepsy | A disorder of the nervous system |
| Esculent | Fit for food, eatable. |
| Extravasted Blood | Rupture of the blood vessel |
| Faggot | Used here in the Middle English sense of a bundle of sticks or twigs tied together for fuel. |
| Falling Sickness | Epilepsy |
| Farinaceous | Consisting of, made of, or characterized by flour or meal. |
| Fatty liver | Cirrhosis |
| Fatuity | Used here in the older sense meaning imbecility, dementia. |
| Fecula | [Latin faecula crust of wine, dim. of faex meaning dregs, sediment] 1 Sediment resulting from infusion of crushed vegetable matter; esp. starch obtained in this way. 2 Faecal matter of insects or other invertebrates. Modern usage of feculence and feculent meaning "filth, scum, containing or of the nature of feces" is derived from the 2nd meaning. |
| Fleam | An instrument used to bleed cattle, which is placed on the vein, and then driven by a blow. [Johnson's Dictionary, 9th Edition, 1806] |
| Flus of Humour | Circulation |
| Flux | See dysentery. |
| French Pox | Venereal disease |
| Funk. | A stink. A low word. [Johnson's Dictionary, 9th Edition, 1806] |
| Furuncle | See boil. |
| Fustian | A napped fabric of a mixture of linen and cotton or wool, or a blanket made of such material. [The New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary] |
| Gamboge | A gum resin used as a bright yellow pigment and as a purgative; obtained from various eastern Asian trees of the genus Garcinia. |
| Gangrene | Death and decay of tissue in a part of the body--usually alimb-- |
| Glandular fever | Mononucleosis |
| Glareous | [from glarieux, French] Consisting of viscous transparent matter, like the white of an egg. [Johnson's Dictionary, 9th Edition, 1806] |
| Gleet | See catarrh. |
| Gravel | A disease characterized by small stones which are formed in the kidneys, |
| Green Sickness | Anemia |
| Griped | With respect to the bowels: afflicted with spasmodic pain as if by contraction or constriction. |
| Grippe | an old term for influenza |
| Handsel | [Late Middle English] A gift supposedly bringing good luck, given to mark the beginning of a new year, a new enterprise, the wearing of new clothes, etc. |
| Hectic fever | A daily recurring fever with profound sweating, chills, and |
| Hip Gout | Osteomylitis |
| Hives | A skin eruption of smooth, slightly elevated areas on the skin which is redder or paler than the surrounding skin.commonly given cause of death of children three years andunder Because true hives does not kill, croup was probably the actual killer |
| Hospital fever | See typhus. |
| Hydrocephalus | See dropsy. |
| Hydrothorax | See dropsy. |
| Icterus |