Iowa Genealogical Society
Outdated Medical Terminology
The following is a list of outdated medical terminology, which may be of help to you in your genealogical research.
| Outdated Term | Current Term |
| apoplexy | stroke |
| bad blood | syphilis |
| blood poisoning | septicemia |
| Bright's disease | glomerulonephritis |
| consumption | pulmonary tuberculosis |
| cretinism | congenital hypothyroidism |
| dropsy | congestive heart failure |
| fatty liver | cirrhosis |
| glandular fever | mononucleosis |
| grippe | influenza |
| jail fever | typhus |
| lock jaw | tetanus |
| lung fever | pneumonia |
| lung sickness | tuberculosis |
| plague or black death | Bubonic plague |
| podagra | gout |
| Pott's disease | tuberculosis of the spinal vertebrae |
| Quinsy | streptococcal tonsillitis |
| scrofula | tuberculosis of the neck lymph nodes |
| toxemia of pregnancy | eclampsia (high blood pressure & seizures) |
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