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:

T

tuberculosis

Tuberculosis (TB) killed hundreds in the late 1800s and early 1900s.  In the 1950s drugs were developed that effectively fought TB.  This significantly reduced the number of deaths in developed countries but poor and developing countries continued unabated.  By the mid-1980s new drug-resistant strains emerged and TB moved back into developed countries. 

TB is an infectious disease that spreads as easily as the common cold.  When someone infected with TB coughs, sneezes, sings, spits, or even talks those nearby can become infected.  

 

typhoid

An inflammation of the intestine.  Usually occurred in the summer months.

 

typhus

An acute, infectious disease transmitted by lice and fleas. The epidemic or classic form is louse borne; the endemic or murine is flea borne. Synonyms: typhus fever, malignant fever (in the 1850s), jail fever, hospital fever, ship fever, putrid fever, brain fever, bilious fever, spotted fever, petechial fever, camp fever.