Daily AncestorRelapsing fever
Relapsing fever was a fever that broke and then came back, spread by lice or ticks; it was also called famine fever.
Webster's 1913 describes relapsing fever as an epidemic fever with one or two remissions and spiral bacteria in the blood, also called famine fever and recurring fever. Wikipedia says the name was given after an Edinburgh outbreak in the 1840s, and that lice or ticks spread it.
IPUMS gives relapsing fever its own code, separate from malaria.
As seen in a recordCause of death column, 1850 to 1880 federal mortality schedule
Pat. Coughlan, 27, M, W, Laborer, Mar., Relapsing fever
Sources
How to cite this page
Daily Ancestor. "Relapsing fever." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/causes-of-death/relapsing-fever. Last checked 2026-10-12.