Colonial Diseases

Among the many diseases in colonial America, the major killers were smallpox, yellow fever, dysentery, malaria, diptheria, cholera, scarlet fever, measles, influenza, typhoid fever, and whooping cough.

March was New England's "Sick Season." The lack of food during the long, hard winter caused diseases revoloving around malnutrition. These included scurvy, beriberi, and pellagra.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

These were some of the diseases that the colonists faced. First is the colonial name for the disease, then today's more common name.

Ablepsy - Blindness

Aphonia - Laryngitis

Atrophy - Wasting away or diminishing in size.

Biliousness - Jaundice associated with liver disease

Black plague or death - Bubonic plague

Cacogastric - Upset stomach

Colic - An abdominal pain and cramping

Congestive chills - Malaria

Consumption - Tuberculosis

Congestion - Any collection of fluid in an organ, like the lungs

Congestive chills - Malaria with diarrhea

Congestive fever - Malaria

Corruption - Infection

Coryza - A cold

Costiveness - Constipation

Dysentery - Inflammation of colon with frequent passage of mucous and blood

Elephantiasis - A form of leprosy

Glandular fever - Mononucleosis

Great pox - Syphilis

Grippe/grip - Influenza like symptoms

Infantile paralysis - Polio

Jaundice - Condition caused by blockage of intestines

King's evil - Tuberculosis of neck and lymph glands

Kruchhusten - Whooping cough

Lagrippe - Influenza

Lockjaw - Tetanus or infectious disease affecting the muscles of the neck and jaw. Untreated, it is fatal in 8 days

Long sickness - Tuberculosis

Lung fever - Pneumonia

Lung sickness - Tuberculosis

Mania - Insanity

Mormal - Gangrene

Phthisis - Chronic wasting away or a name for tuberculosis

Sanguineous crust - Scab

Small pox - Contagious disease with fever and blisters

Softening of brain - Result of stroke or hemorrhage in the brain, with an end result of the tissue softening in that area

Sore throat distemper - Diphtheria or quinsy

Spanish influenza - Epidemic influenza

Spasms - Sudden involuntary contraction of muscle or group of muscles, like a convulsion

Summer complaint - Diarrhea, usually in infants caused by spoiled milk

Tetanus - Infectious fever characterized by high fever, headache and dizziness

Variola - Smallpox

Winter fever - Pneumonia

 

New England Home

Cures