Daily AncestorParalysis of the heart
Paralysis of the heart was a 1800s phrase for a heart that suddenly stopped beating, a way of death rather than a named disease.
The phrase describes the heart ceasing to work. The 1911 Census Bureau manual names paralysis of the heart among the old vague terms that informed doctors were using less and less, and files it with heart failure and cardiac weakness as undesirable.
Such deaths were compiled with ill-defined causes, not with heart disease. Read it like heart failure: the heart stopped, and the reason is not given.
As seen in a recordCause of death column, 1850 to 1880 federal mortality schedule
Ezra Fullam, 71, M, W, Dec., Paralysis of the heart
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Daily Ancestor. "Paralysis of the heart." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/causes-of-death/paralysis-of-the-heart. Last checked 2026-10-12.