Daily AncestorSleeping sickness
Sleeping sickness on American records of the 1910s and 1920s can mean encephalitis lethargica, the brain disease that swept the world from 1915 to 1926.
Encephalitis lethargica, first described in 1917, attacked the brain and left some victims motionless and speechless. An epidemic spread around the world between 1915 and 1926.
It is different from the African sleeping sickness spread by the tsetse fly. On an American death certificate of the 1920s, sleeping sickness or lethargic encephalitis points to the brain disease.
As seen in a recordCause of death line, state death certificate, 1910s to 1930s
Harold Beck, 19, M, W, Sleeping sickness
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Daily Ancestor. "Sleeping sickness." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/causes-of-death/sleeping-sickness. Last checked 2026-10-10.