Daily AncestorAgue cake
Ague cake was the old name for a hard, enlarged spleen left by repeated attacks of ague, that is, malaria.
Webster's 1913 defines ague cake as an enlargement of the spleen produced by ague.
Malaria is still among the causes of a massively enlarged spleen. The 1911 Britannica noted that much of the death toll from malaria came from the long wasting it caused, called malarial cachexia, rather than from the fever attacks themselves.
As seen in a recordCause of death column, 1850 to 1880 federal mortality schedule
Jno. Tabb, 44, M, W, Farmer, Ague cake
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Daily Ancestor. "Ague cake." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/causes-of-death/ague-cake. Last checked 2026-10-10.