Obscure Medical and Health Terms 2 Quiz

Answer: Tonsils

Tonsils, for those of us who don't work in the medical field, are lymphatic tissues on either side of the back of the human throat. Oh this is a bit grim: tonsils are at their largest during the teenage years, but after that they begin to wither and waste. How comforting to know that those of us still with tonsils intact now have them withering away at the back of our throats.

The purpose of these lymphatic tissues is to defend the body against bacteria and viruses. In days gone by, these earkeckers, if they became infected or swollen, were frequently removed by the medical profession, but today doctors try to save them with doses of antibiotics instead. Have you seen a photograph of tonsils that have been removed? They're quite disgusting. It was once considered quite the thing to send children home from the hospital with those removed objects floating in special fluid in a jar, so they could display them proudly to their friends.

Answer: To bring on a birth

Ergot is a disease of rye that kills off the grains by covering them with a black and horrible looking fungus. By eating breads tainted with ergot, this could cause a variety of inexplicable and painful symptoms in people - and in animals if they were given food scraps containing it.

These symptoms included hysteria, hallucinations, convulsions and uncontrolled vomiting. Ergot is believed to be the cause of the horrifying symptoms associated with those who were convicted of sorcery during the Salem Witch Trials in the early days of the United States. One of its other effects was to cause strong uterine contractions in pregnant females, and for very many years, this product was used to expel the placenta, bring on childbirth - or cause abortions.

Answer: Anger caused by sexual frustration

Outbursts of anger can be caused by any triggering factor. Society however, determined to see women as either sexual or breeding objects in earlier days, decreed that if they became annoyed or irritated on more than one occasion, it was because they wanted a man. What nonsense. The horrifying thing is that today, if women display annoyance or irritability from time to time, uninformed people will often put this down to their having their monthly period, or going through change of life instead. Apparently, women are not allowed to be angry without it being associated with their nether regions. In the first edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica (1768-1771) furor uterinus is described as follows: "Violent outbursts of anger...caused by frustrated female sexual desire...salacity in women, attended with impudence, restlessness and a delirium. It arises from a too great sensibility of the pudenda."

Other gems from that time include: (1) Green disease - anemia in teenage girls or spinsters caused by celibacy - also known as Virgin's disease. (2) Hysteria. I'll quote this from Canada's McMaster University History of Health and Medicine library, 2015: "...Women were thought to be particularly suseptable (sic) because they had a womb...which was seen as a cause of a lot of medical problems in women, especially childless ones. This was the reasoning behind hysterectomy as a treatment for mental illness in women during the nineteenth century."

Answer: Dead

How unfortunate - and what a quaint expression. "Embarrassed of" meant that anyone, who was showing no functioning vital signs (breathing, pulse, pupil reaction etc), had gone to that great medical centre in the sky. This was also described in days gone by as having gone aloft, or having been tucked up with a spade.

A "gig" on the other hand, was a slight movement in a presumed embarrassed person that still indicated life was present. So the undertakers regretfully had to put away their shovels.

Answer: Gonorrhoea

Poor fellow. Gonorrhoea was a simply dreadful disease in the days before antibiotics. In men, its symptoms included inflammation of the urethra, a burning sensation while urinating, swelling in the joints, general pain, an offensive discharge from the penis, fever, confusion, vomiting, an inability to tolerate light or loud noise, the possibility of a weakening heart, and the further possibility of developing a dangerous inflammation of the spinal cord and brain.

The discharge from the penis was known in days gone by as "gleet". Gleet was also used more generally to described any discharge from an infected wound or ulcer, but it was particularly associated with gonorrhoea in men, a condition which, if left untreated, was fatal.

Answer: Midwife

A midwife, or granny woman was a trained women who took care of pregnant women right through to the birth of their child and during the post-natal period. A handywoman, on the other hand, was a self taught midwife. Today this work requires some three years training and follow up working experience to become fully competent at the job, but the profession itself dates back some several thousand years. Indeed, some midwives were so skilled at their work in earlier times that they were looked upon as physicians. You may be interested in what was expected of them back in the second century, as described in the work "Gynecology" by Soranus of Ephesus. He describes the ideal midwife as follows:

"...a suitable person (who) will be literate, with her wits about her, possessed of a good memory, loving work, respectable and generally not unduly handicapped as regards her senses...sound of limb, robust, and, according to some people, endowed with long slim fingers and short nails at her fingertips...of a sympathetic disposition...and that she keep her hands soft for the comfort of both mother and child".

Answer: A chair for a woman giving birth to sit upon

These groaning stools, which have been around for several thousands years, were known by several other names as well, including birthing stools. They were designed, as a general rule, with a hole cut out of the seat for the poor pregnant woman to sit upon, enabling room for her child to plop down into (hopefully) waiting arms. Most also came with firm arm rests that she could grip tightly during delivery, (and possibly even rip off in agony) and with the seat kept low to the ground so that she could brace her feet on the ground for each push. Thank heavens for caesareans! Prior to the creation of groaning stools, the delivering woman sat on the lap of an assistant instead.

There was a groaning board as well, you know. The cheek of it. This was a table or dresser on which foods called groaning bread, groaning cake, groaning cheese, groaning pie and groaning ale were provided. Not for the woman in agony mind you, but for her husband and friends to enjoy while she was hollering away in the next room.

Answer: A very skinny person

There's not much else to add to this except that it was a term commonly in use during the nineteenth century to describe someone of very thin build. This condition was also known as ballow, or bald rib.

Answer: Crutches

This term was in use in the United Kingdom between 1820 and 1910 before it was replaced by the word crutches instead. "Armprops" seems far more sensible really when one considers the dual meaning for crutches. Either way, these pieces of medical equipment, which come today in several designs, allow the users to transfer weight going down onto their injured or weakened legs into their arms and crutches instead.

The underarm crutches are the most supportive of today's designs for the majority of users, but, for long term users, there is a danger, with continued use, of these damaging the nerves in the armpits.

This can lead to a condition known as crutch paralysis.

Answer: A tonic made of milk mixed with castor oil

A Bombay oyster, in use during the 19th century, was supposed to be a tonic. It was comprised of milk mixed with a double dose of castor oil. Castor oil if you please. That stuff was used medically as a laxative - big time. A double dose of it would be some tonic indeed. You'd be so desperate to get to the toilet on time, you'd forget all about being ill.