Daily AncestorBilious fever
Bilious fever was a vague 1700s and 1800s diagnosis for fever with vomiting or yellow skin, most often malaria but sometimes other illnesses.
Bilious fever was a label used by eighteenth- and nineteenth-century doctors for a fever that seemed to involve too much bile, with nausea, vomiting or yellowing of the skin and eyes.
It was not one disease. Malaria was the most common cause behind it, but hepatitis, blood infections and other fevers could all be called bilious. The term disappeared as medicine learned to identify specific germs.
As seen in a recordCause of death column, 1850 to 1880 federal mortality schedule
John Teal, 30, M, W, Married, Tenn., August, Bilious fever, 14 days
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Daily Ancestor. "Bilious fever." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/causes-of-death/bilious-fever. Last checked 2026-10-01.