Daily AncestorInflammation of the lungs
Inflammation of the lungs was the common 1800s phrase for pneumonia, written by doctors and clerks as a cause of death.
Inflammation of the lungs was the standard nineteenth-century way to write pneumonia in English. The word pneumonia itself means lung inflammation, so the two are equivalent in most records.
Clerks abbreviated it in many ways, such as inflam. of lungs. Like lung fever, it could cover several different chest infections that no one could tell apart at the time.
As seen in a recordCause of death column, 1850 to 1880 federal mortality schedule
Mary A. Rice, 2, F, W, Ohio, February, Inflammation of lungs, 5 days
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Daily Ancestor. "Inflammation of the lungs." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/causes-of-death/inflammation-of-the-lungs. Last checked 2026-10-01.