Daily AncestorMarasmus
Marasmus means severe wasting from lack of nourishment, mostly in infants, whether from too little food or an illness that kept them from absorbing it.
Marasmus comes from a Greek word for withering. It describes extreme thinness and wasting caused by too few calories, most often in babies under a year old.
The term is still used in medicine today for one form of severe malnutrition. In older records it tells you a baby slowly starved, whatever the reason behind it.
As seen in a recordCause of death column, 1850 to 1880 federal mortality schedule
Infant son of M. Ryan, 7 mos., M, W, Mass., September, Marasmus, 60 days
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Daily Ancestor. "Marasmus." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/causes-of-death/marasmus. Last checked 2026-10-01.