According to The Atlantic, during the late 1800s, ... Victorians called tuberculosis consumption, and it absolutely consumed them. Most doctors simply recommended bed rest and to move to a drier climate. The consumption you're talking about, though, refers to a specific disease: tuberculosis, or simply TB. Consumption was the leading cause of death in the White Chapel records. Consumption reached near epidemic proportions in in industial Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries. Consumption: An old and once common term for wasting away of the body, particularly from pulmonary tuberculosis ().Other old TB terms include the King's evil or scrofula (TB of the lymph nodes in the neck) and Pott's disease (TB of the spine).. Diseases and epidemics of the 19th century included long-standing epidemic threats such as smallpox, typhus, yellow fever, and scarlet fever.In addition, cholera emerged as an epidemic threat and spread worldwide in six pandemics in the nineteenth century. 1800s Medical Cures That Still Work Today. It was published in 1859 and in it Bell claimed, “the watery regimen … Consumption = Tuberculosis. In Fushigi Yuugi: Genbu Kaiden, Mrs. Okuda is suffering from tuberculosis at the beginning of the story, though it is usually referred to as "consumption" instead of by its proper name. They were given crosses and red shoes as the infected hated red. In the 19th century, the disease was so prevalent that it took on a strangely romanticized reputation. 4. Snow, the same person who discovered the source of cholera, invented use of chloroform to alleviate labour pains. The dancers were sent to St. Vitus's monastery behind Zabern. The disease, now known to be infectious, attacks the lungs and damages other organs. Also, there were many diseases that … There was a general belief that labour pain was imposed by God because Eve had sinned in the Garden of Eden. 1831-1834 •During 1831-1834 cholera, a highly contractible disease caused by a bacterial infection of the intestine, spread throughout Britain attacking all classes. By the mid-1800s, tuberculosis had reached epidemic levels in Europe and the United States. Coryza - A cold . Sanitation and health was terrible compared to what its like today. Although consumption (aka "the evil disease") isn't mentioned much anymore in countries that have widespread vaccination programs, the deadly bacterial infection hasn't gone away. Throughout history the movement of people has played a major role in the transmission of disease. Dr. Diseases of the 1800s: The 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries were an awful time to live. You may also have symptoms of mild illness such as mild stomach pain and diarrhea. The World Health Organization (WHO) in "L'histoire de la tuberculose" notes that: "In 460 BC Hippocrates identified phtisis (the Greek word … The third plague pandemic emerged in China in the mid-nineteenth century and spread worldwide in the 1890s. Before the germ that causes TB was discovered in 1882, TB was known in popular terms as the "white plague" or "consumption". Work was physically difficult and accidents happened often. The commonest manifestation of the different kinds of tuberculosis is pulmonary TB, commonly referred to as consumption, phthisis or decline. By the 1800s, when the scares were at their height, the disease was the leading cause of mortality throughout the Northeast, responsible for almost a quarter of all deaths. Birth of a child was risky and painful. Victorian Era Diseases Illnesses. Cholera is transmitted through contaminated food or water. The feces of those who were infected by the disease Debility - Used to describe "failure to thrive" in infancy, or in old age due to loss of weight from undiagnosed cancer or other disorder. See more. To prevent the disease, wash your hands regularly, maintain good hygiene and drink clean water. It involved compulsive dancing until the dancer fell down dead. Congestive fever - Malaria . Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but can also affect other parts of the body. One after another, the girls would sicken, take to the sofa, and die. Eventually, a procedure was discovered that became the only known cure for the illness. Crop sickness - Overextended stomach . St. Vitus's Dance declined greatly during the 18th century. Written by: Tammy Robinson Lost Ways Found 6 Comments Print This Article. Tuberculosis (called consumption in those times) was a terrible condition with no cure. Consumption - Tuberculosis. “Consumption, I am aware, is a flattering malady,” wrote Charlotte Brontë in 1849. Diarrhea. John Bell, M.D., wrote a whole book about bathing titled, Water, as a Preservative of Health, and a Remedy in Disease: A Treatise on Baths. Dysentery, also known a s “camp fever” or “the bloody flux,” was endemic throughout the colonial period. Congestion - Any collection of fluid in an organ, like the lungs . In the past, tuberculosis was called consumption, because it seemed to consume people from within, with a bloody cough, fever, pallor, and long relentless wasting. By the dawn of the 19th century, tuberculosis—or consumption—had killed one in seven of all people that had ever lived. Yellow Fever is still to this day very dangerous and something you would want to avoid at all costs. In the slums, prostitutes caught the sexually transmitted disease syphilis and infected their clients – who infected their wives. May also mean, along with the term "vapors" that the individual died from acute alcohol ingestion, or the DTs. Our methods involved browsing through online archives of newspapers printed between 1870 and 1910 that were accessible through Chronicling America from the Library of Congress and commercial databases available through our university libraries. By the 1740s gin consumption in Britain had reached an average of over six gallons per person every year. Cramp colic - Appendicitis . Consumption: a wasting away of the body; formerly applied especially to pulmonary tuberculosis, caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis. He advised towns to drain wet areas and families to occupy only sunlit homes sited on dry soils. With advancing medical knowledge and standardization of medical education worldwide, health care professionals are familiar with formal terms for medical illnesses, and many do not even recognize disease names of a past era. In "Consumption in America," a series of three articles published in the Atlantic Monthly in 1869, Dr. Henry Bowditch theorized that damp soil was the main cause of consumption. A light diet of jelly and port might comfort them, but their end was inescapable. Edward Munch suffered from anxiety, depression, agoraphobia and hallucinations; he used his art as an expressive, cathartic form of autobiography. The progress of the illness in a cholera victim was a frightening spectacle: two or three died of diarrhoea which increased in intensity and became accompanied by painful retching; thirst and dehydration; sever pain in the limbs, stomach, and abdominal muscles; a change skin hue to a … Is the 1800s farther away from the present day than we think? Most infections show no symptoms, in which case it is known as latent tuberculosis. Consumption - Tuberculosis . Many people believed that the drinking of gin was leading to a social crisis. It wasn’t until the late 1800s that anything could be done about the disease. However, in 2003 physician Leonard Sax disputed that account, arguing that the philosopher's symptoms signaled an illness more like brain cancer. Revolutionary War Battleship Replica ‘Philadelphia 2’: Photo by Author. It killed 87 people from as young as 1?years to as old as 72 years, including a 30 year old mother and her 1?year old infant who were buried together in February 1804. ‘Consumption’ (tuberculosis) seemed to run in families. Baths In general by the mid-1800s, most people knew that bathing was healthy. Creeping paralysis - Syphilis. About 10% of latent infections progress to active disease which, if left untreated, kills about half of those affected. In the 1800s is was defined as severe insanity. Crime, poverty and a soaring death rate were all linked to the insatiable demand for ‘Madame Geneva’ as the drink was known. Acute mania was used as a term for death when the patient had been hospitalized in a mental institution. Indoor plumbing was rare and homes were heated by sooty wood burning stoves and kerosene lamps. Migration, trade, and war have allowed diseases to travel from one environment to another, often with far-reaching social consequences. The American Lung Association is dedicated to the cure and control of all lung diseases, but its formation in 1904 was in response to only one: tuberculosis.During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, tuberculosis (TB) was the leading cause of death in the United States, and one of the most feared diseases in the world. Consumption definition, the act of consuming, as by use, decay, or destruction. Any of the forms of mental illness, or dementia. She and Takiko's governess wish to keep the illness a secret because the social stigma might jeopardize 17-year-old Takiko's ability to get married. Costiveness - Constipation . In physick, a waste of muscular flesh. There wasn’t a lot of medical technology and what they did have wasn’t very useful. Serious diseases like cholera, yellow fever, typhoid fever, diphtheria, malaria, and tuberculosis are common. It was extremely prevalent amongst teenagers and young adults who were undernourished, and overworked or overtired. Dropsy - Edema; often caused by congestive heart failure. Travel back to a time when two thirds of Americans lived on farms or rural villages. Many people become symptom-free carriers of the TB bacteria. Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates. It is frequently attended by a hectick fever and is divided by physicians into … It is caused by bacteria entering the mouth through contaminated water or food and poor hygiene. Originally, of course, nobody knew what caused the various forms of tuberculosis, and they certainly didn’t understand it was caused by what would eventually be called tubercle bacillus (usually the offending microbes are specifically Mycobacterium tuberculosis). Congestive chills - Malaria with diarrhea . The Development of Formal Disease Names . Dyspepsia - Acid indigestion or heartburn. Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) bacteria. Corruption - Infection . Falling sickness - Epilepsy.