Diseases of our
Ancestors
Over time, many disease names have changed. Below is a list
of some of the old terms that you may come across and their current names.
| Outdated Term | Current Term |
| Ague | malaria |
| Apoplexy | stroke |
| Bad blood | syphilis |
| Blood poisoning | septicemia (overwhelming bacterial infection |
| Bright's Disease | glomerulonephritis (serious kidney disease) |
| Consumption | tuberculosis, pulmonary |
| Cretinism | hypothyroidsim, congenital |
| Dropsy | congestive heart failure |
| Fatty liver | cirrhosis |
| Glandular fever | mononucleosis |
| Grippe | influenza (flu) |
| Jail fever | typhus |
| Lock jaw | tetanus |
| Lung fever | pneumonia |
| Lung sickness | tuberculosis |
| Plague/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 | eclampsis (high blood pressure & seizures) |