Daily AncestorJaundice
Jaundice meant yellowing of the skin and eyes from bile in the blood; it was a sign of liver or gall bladder disease, not a disease in itself.
The word comes from French jaune, yellow. Webster's 1913 describes yellow eyes, skin and urine, pale stools and weakness, usually caused by a blockage that dams up bile in the liver.
The medical word is icterus. When jaundice appears as a cause of death, the real problem lay in the liver or the bile passages, which the record does not name.
As seen in a recordCause of death column, 1850 to 1880 federal mortality schedule
Thos. Ruff, 57, M, W, Jaundice, 6 wks.
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Daily Ancestor. "Jaundice." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/causes-of-death/jaundice. Last checked 2026-10-10.