Daily AncestorMalignant fever
Malignant fever meant any fever of a dangerous, likely fatal kind; in Philadelphia in 1793 it was the common name for the yellow fever epidemic.
Malignant, in old medical use, meant tending to cause death. A malignant fever was any severe, fast-moving fever, whatever the cause, and it could be yellow fever, typhus, scarlet fever or something else.
Mathew Carey's 1793 pamphlet A Short Account of the Malignant Fever described the yellow fever outbreak in Philadelphia. Look at the year and place to judge which disease is meant.
As seen in a recordChurch burial register
Buried, Jno. Hart, of a malignant fever, Sept. 1793
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Daily Ancestor. "Malignant fever." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/causes-of-death/malignant-fever. Last checked 2026-10-01.