The emerging science on cognitive dysfunction
Consumption was the name given by ancient Greek physician Hippocrates to what we now call tuberculosis. He described it as such because the disease appeared to consume the affected person through substantial weight loss and wasting. The name endured up until the turn of the 20th century.
In antiquity, a condition known as Roman fever inspired the name mal'aria ("bad air"). We know it today as malaria, but for centuries the illness was widely known as congestive fever mainly due to the severe abdominal cramps associated with the disease.
Dropsy is the antiquated term for edema, swelling caused by too much fluid trapped in the body's tissues. Fluid buildup in the legs can severely inhibit a patient's ability to walk, hence the name.
Biliousness is the outdated name for jaundice. When the bile ducts become blocked, bile builds up in the liver, and jaundice (a yellow discoloration of the skin) develops due to the increasing level of bilirubin in the blood.
Green sickness is the obsolete term for chlorosis or anemia. It related to adolescent girls and young women described as suffering from bodily weakness, dietary disorders, heart palpitations, fainting spells, paleness, and an absence of menstruation (amenorrhoea), which is why it was also known as the "virgin's disease."
Leprosy was widespread throughout the world for centuries. But in 1873, the Norwegian physician Gerhard Armauer Hansen identified the bacterium Mycobacterium leprae as the causative agent of the infection. Henceforth, the condition became known as Hansen's disease.
For many years, quinsy was the collective term used to describe any one of the three different types of tonsillitis. In fact, quinsy, also known as a peritonsillar abscess, is a rare and potentially serious complication of tonsillitis.
Ablepsy is the historical name used to describe someone unable to see. It comes from the ancient Greek word ablepsia, or "blindness."
Anyone suffering from delirium tremens (DTs) in the 18th and 19th centuries was often described as suffering from barrel fever. Delirium tremens is a rapid onset of confusion and hallucination usually caused by withdrawal from alcohol. The barrel in question was the beer keg that seasoned alcoholics would drink dry with alarming ease.
Before pneumonia was fully understood, physicians referred to this potentially deadly lung infection simply as winter fever. Indeed, pneumonia is more frequent during the winter months.
In the dark, filthy cells of Victorian prisons, jail fever was a common complaint. Inmates were likely suffering from typus, a disease spread to humans by lice and fleas. Typhus often occurred when prisoners were crowded together into cramped and squalid conditions.
The term St. Vitus' dance derives from the late Middle Ages, when persons with the disease we know today as chorea attended the chapels of St. Vitus, who was believed to have curative powers. Chorea is a movement disorder that causes involuntary, unpredictable body movements, hence the dancing analogy.
Long before it was identified as a chronic disease of the brain, epilepsy was called falling sickness, a reference to the recurring, unprovoked seizures that characterize the condition.
Dengue, a mosquito-transmitted virus, causes severe muscle spasms and joint pain, along with fever, shivering, and excruciating headaches. It's the unbearable pain felt throughout the body that led many to call the condition break-bone fever.
The word "melancholia” has its origins in ancient Greece and describes a feeling of intense sadness and hopelessness. While melancholia is no longer widely used in medical circles, there is such a thing as melancholic depression, and it's usually severe.
Rabies was historically referred to as hydrophobia ("fear of water") due to the symptom of panic when sufferers were presented with liquids to drink. But in the Byzantine era, those afflicted with the disease were believed to have been struck by canine madness, which supposedly made them bark like dogs, scramble on all fours, and loiter around graveyards.
In the Middle Ages, scrofula, a tuberculous swelling of the lymph glands, was popularly supposed to be curable by the touch of royalty. It's why this bacterial infection was called king's evil. The custom of touching was first adopted in England by Edward the Confessor and in France by Philip I.
Tetanus was once widely known as lockjaw because of the way it caused a person's neck and jaw muscles to lock. Severe tetanus can cause opisthotonos, a spasm of the muscles causing backward arching of the head, neck, and spine.
While early research into hay fever revealed it as a condition triggered by seasonal allergens like pollens and grass, which induced sneezing, a runny nose, and watery, itchy eyes, no one was quite sure exactly where to point the finger. So they named the disorder rose cold.
St. Anthony's fire was, and still is, an eponym used to describe erysipelas, a common and painful bacterial infection of the skin that leaves it red, swollen, and warm. In history, St. Anthony is generally associated with the poor and sick.
Trench mouth is an obsolete term for gingivitis, a painful form of gum swelling. Trench foot, meanwhile, is an archaic name for immersion foot syndrome, a condition that can occur when your feet are cold and wet for a long period of time.
Thousands of years ago, variola virus (smallpox virus) emerged and began causing illness and deaths in human populations worldwide. The disease was known for centuries as variola. Whatever you want to call it, smallpox was one of the most devastating diseases known to humanity and caused millions of deaths before it was eradicated in 1980.
Chalkstones was the name given to swelling with pain that probably was caused by rheumatoid arthritis or gout.
The benign-sounding condition known as domestic malady was another term once used to describe depression. It was also spoken of when talking about an emotional breakdown.
Woolsorter's disease is what they called anthrax before this serious infection was properly understood. It refers to people who tended to contract the disease when coming into contact with infected animals. Incidentally, Bacillus anthracis was the first bacterium to be identified, in 1841. In 1881, Louis Pasteur successfully tested a vaccine on sheep.
Undulant fever was the name once given to brucellosis, an infectious disease caused by bacteria that humans can also contract from infected livestock. The name is a reference to the rising and falling of the patient's temperature.
Sources: (Verywell Health) (National Institutes of Health) (National Center for Biotechnology Information) (Healthdirect) (Britannica) (WHO)
See also: Civet cats, bats, and other animals who spread deadly diseases
Do you know what green sickness is? What about bronze john, or St. Vitus' dance? Surely you must be familiar with Woolsorter's disease? Actually, these are all old names for diseases and conditions most of us have probably heard the modern names of. It's just that back in the day physicians either had no idea what they were dealing with, or it was the only description they could come up with. Either way, you'll be surprised by what they used to call some of the most common—and one or two of the deadliest—disorders known to medicine.
Curious? Click through and find out the medical terms that died out with time.
The name Bronze John referred to anyone unfortunate enough to contract yellow fever during numerous outbreaks of the disease in North America during the 18th and 19th centuries. Yellow fever can, in fact, precede a bout of jaundice, which is probably the origin of Bronze John.
In historical times, someone afflicted with mortification was actually suffering from gangrene, the death of body tissue due to a lack of blood flow or a serious bacterial infection.
Nasty-sounding scrumpox is a now outdated word to describe impetigo, a common and highly contagious skin infection that mainly affects infants and young children.
Dropsy and other obsolete disease names
Medical terms that died out with time
HEALTH Medical history
Do you know what green sickness is? What about bronze john, or St. Vitus' dance? Surely you must be familiar with Woolsorter's disease? Actually, these are all old names for diseases and conditions most of us have probably heard the modern names of. It's just that back in the day physicians either had no idea what they were dealing with, or it was the only description they could come up with. Either way, you'll be surprised by what they used to call some of the most common—and one or two of the deadliest—disorders known to medicine.
Curious? Click through and find out the medical terms that died out with time.