Daily AncestorCarbuncle
A carbuncle was a large, deep, painful skin abscess, bigger than a boil, often on the back of the neck, that could lead to fatal blood poisoning.
The word comes from Latin for a small coal, after its fiery red color. Webster's 1913 describes a very painful hard inflammation under the skin, usually of the back or neck.
Webster's 1913 calls it frequently fatal and notes it was also called anthrax, a different thing from the anthrax of cattle. IPUMS groups abscesses and carbuncles in its mortality schedule codes.
As seen in a recordCause of death column, 1850 to 1880 federal mortality schedule
Jas. Whitcomb, 66, M, W, Farmer, Carbuncle on neck
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Daily Ancestor. "Carbuncle." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/causes-of-death/carbuncle. Last checked 2026-10-10.