Old causes of death

Disease names from death records and mortality schedules. Free to print and share. Full explanations: dailyancestor.com/dictionary/causes-of-death

Accidental death

Death by accident

Ague

Malaria, with recurring chills and fever

Apoplexy

Sudden collapse, usually a stroke

Asiatic cholera

True epidemic cholera from contaminated water

Atrophy

Wasting away of the body

Bilious colic

Severe belly pain with vomiting of bile

Bilious fever

Fever with jaundice or vomiting, often malaria

Black vomit

Yellow fever, named for its dark bloody vomit

Bloody flux

Dysentery, diarrhea with blood

Brain fever

Fever with delirium, often meningitis

Breakbone fever

Dengue fever, with severe aching bones

Bright's disease

Kidney disease (nephritis)

Burns

Death from fire or scalding

Camp fever

Fever in army camps, typhoid or typhus

Canker

Spreading ulcer, often of the mouth

Canker rash

Mouth sores with a skin rash, maybe scarlet fever

Capillary bronchitis

Bronchitis in the smallest airways; bronchopneumonia

Catarrh

Airway inflammation with heavy mucus

Childbed fever

Infection after childbirth (puerperal fever)

Chin cough

Whooping cough

Chlorosis

Iron-poor anemia with greenish-pale skin

Cholera infantum

Severe diarrhea in babies, not true cholera

Cholera morbus

Gastroenteritis, not epidemic cholera

Confinement

Childbirth or the lying-in period

Congestion of the brain

Vague diagnosis for sudden brain symptoms

Consumption

Tuberculosis, usually of the lungs

Consumption of the bowels

Tuberculosis of the abdomen or bowels

Convulsions

Seizures, often given for infant deaths

Croup

Barking cough and choking breath in a child

Cyanosis

Blue skin from lack of oxygen

Debility

General bodily weakness

Decline

Slow failing of health, cause unnamed

Delirium tremens

Fatal shaking and confusion of alcohol withdrawal

Dentition

Teething (blamed for infant deaths)

Dropsy

Swelling from fluid buildup (edema)

Dropsy of the brain

Fluid on the brain (hydrocephalus)

Drowned

Died by drowning

Dyspepsia

Indigestion, chronic stomach trouble

Erysipelas

Red, spreading strep skin infection

Exposure

Death from cold or weather (hypothermia)

Falling sickness

Epilepsy

Felo de se

Inquest verdict: took own life while of sound mind

Flooding

Heavy bleeding after childbirth

Flux

Diarrhea or dysentery

Found dead

Inquest verdict: cause could not be found

Gastric fever

Typhoid fever, named for its stomach symptoms

Gravel

Sandy grit or tiny stones passed in urine

Grippe

Influenza (the flu)

Hectic fever

Daily flushing fever of consumption

Hemorrhage of the lungs

Coughing up blood, often from consumption

Hydrophobia

Rabies

Hydrothorax

Fluid around the lungs (dropsy of the chest)

Iliac passion

Violent colic with vomiting; blocked bowel

Inanition

Exhaustion from lack of nourishment

Infantile paralysis

Polio

Inflammation of the bowels

Bowel illness with pain, often enteritis

Inflammation of the brain

Brain or its lining inflamed (meningitis)

Inflammation of the lungs

Pneumonia, as written by 1800s doctors

Inflammatory rheumatism

Rheumatic fever, with hot swollen joints

Intemperance

Death blamed on heavy drinking

Intermittent fever

Fever returning in cycles, mostly malaria

Lockjaw

Tetanus

Lues

Syphilis (Latin medical name)

Lung fever

Pneumonia (folk name)

Malignant fever

Any fever severe enough to threaten life

Marasmus

Severe wasting in an infant from malnutrition

Membranous croup

Croup with a throat membrane, usually diphtheria

Milk leg

Blood clot in the leg after childbirth

Milk sickness

Poisoning from milk of cows that ate snakeroot

Mortification

Gangrene, death of body tissue

Nervous fever

Slow fever with delirium, usually typhoid

Nostalgia

Homesickness, then counted as a disease

Old age

Death of an elderly person, no disease named

Ossification of the heart

Hardened, chalky heart valves or arteries

Overlaying

Infant smothered by a sleeping adult

Painter's colic

Lead poisoning, with cramping belly pain

Palsy

Paralysis, often after a stroke

Pellagra

Niacin deficiency with rash and confusion

Phthisis

Medical word for consumption (tuberculosis)

Pleurisy

Inflamed lining of the lungs, sharp chest pain

Puerperal convulsions

Seizures around childbirth (eclampsia)

Purpura

Purple spots from bleeding under the skin

Putrid fever

Typhus (older name)

Putrid sore throat

Foul, ulcerated throat (diphtheria or scarlet fever)

Quick consumption

Fast-moving, rapidly fatal tuberculosis

Quinsy

Abscess beside the tonsil (severe sore throat)

Remittent fever

Fever that eases but never breaks, often malaria

Rheumatism

Joint and muscle pain of many kinds

Rickets

Soft, bent bones from lack of vitamin D

Rubeola

Measles (medical name)

Rupture

Hernia, deadly when the bowel was trapped

Scarlatina

Scarlet fever

Scrofula

Tuberculosis of the neck glands

Scurvy

Vitamin C deficiency disease

Senility

Mental and physical decline of age

Ship fever

Typhus caught aboard crowded ships

Smallpox

Variola virus disease with pustules

Softening of the brain

Decay of brain tissue, gradual mental decline

Spotted fever

Fever with skin spots, often meningitis

St. Vitus' dance

Chorea, jerky involuntary movements

Stillborn

Baby born dead

Stone

A large stone in the bladder or kidney

Struck by lightning

Killed by a lightning strike

Summer complaint

Hot-weather diarrhea, mainly in small children

Sunstroke

Heat stroke from sun or extreme heat

Thrush

Yeast infection of the mouth, white patches

Trismus nascentium

Tetanus in a newborn baby

Typho-malarial fever

Civil War diagnosis: mixed typhoid and malaria

Typhoid fever

Waterborne Salmonella fever, not typhus

Typhus

Louse-borne fever with rash

Varioloid

Mild smallpox in a partly protected person

Visitation of God

Inquest verdict: sudden natural death

Worms

Intestinal parasites such as roundworms

Yellow jack

Yellow fever (nickname)