Medical Terms

This chapter is not an exhaustive or authoritative list of all diseases and obsolete medical terms. Further, the author is not a medical professional and the information contained within this chapter is not for medical use. This chapter is intended to help genealogists understand medical conditions, illnesses, etc. that affected our ancestors.

Click a letter to open that page of the dictionary:

P

palsy

Paralysis or loss of muscle control.  Uncontrollable shaking due to the loss of muscle control.

paresis

A slight or partial paralysis, which migth be caused by a stroke.

paroxysm

Convulsion of some sort.

 

plague

See: black death.

 

pleurisy

Inflammation of the lung and usually accompanied by chest pain.

 

pneumonia

A disease of the lungs characterized by inflammation and consolidation followed by resolution and caused by infection or irritants.

 

pox

Syphilis.

 

putrid fever

Diptheria or typhus.

 

pyrexia

See: dysentery.