Daily AncestorPyemia
Pyemia, also spelled pyaemia, was a form of blood poisoning in which pus-forming germs in the blood caused abscesses all over the body.
Webster's 1913 describes pyemia as blood poisoning that usually started from a wound or local inflammation, with abscesses in many organs, chills, fever, sweating and exhaustion. It was almost always fatal before antibiotics.
William Osler described it at length in his 1892 textbook, and Ignaz Semmelweis wrote that childbed fever was a form of pyemia. On a record, it signals death from a spreading infection.
As seen in a recordCause of death column, 1850 to 1880 federal mortality schedule
Geo. Rand, 24, M, W, Soldier, Pyaemia after amputation
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Daily Ancestor. "Pyemia." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/causes-of-death/pyemia. Last checked 2026-10-10.