Ancient Medical Terms Trivia Quiz

Answer: Ablation

Ablation was a word that first began to be used in medical circles in the European world from the early 1420s. It described the removal of abnormal growths or other parts of the human body that posed a real danger to the life and health of individuals - the ablation of tonsils, for example, or a malignant tumour.

Answer: Blindness

Ablepsy was a term in use by 1616 in the medical world of long ago. This described not only visual impairment or total blindness, as we would recognise these conditions today, and all of which have various causes, but it also described a type of hysterical blindness where the sufferers actually convinced themselves that they had lost all their ability to see.

Answer: Diarrhoea

The back door trots was a term in use in the medical world of the United Kingdom by 1789, as found recorded in the Oxford Dictionary at that time. This inconvenient and embarrassing condition is known today as diarrhoea. One suspects that "back door trots" was easier to spell. Because modern sewers and their treatment systems still had a long way to go for the average family, toilets were usually little outhouses, located a safe distance from homes, in their back yards. Contents of the buckets placed underneath the seats were emptied periodically and buried. Anyone suffering from diarrhoea didn't walk sedately and calmly to the toilet when this condition banged on the door - they tore outside as quickly as possible - hence its very apt description.

Answer: Stomach

These very unflattering terms to describe a patient's stomach were in particular use in Scotland from 1786. Because they appeared in the dictionaries of the time, they had, no doubt, been long in use leading up to that date. Fortunately today there are more dignified expressions to describe that part of a person's anatomy.

Answer: Sweating

It is presumed that, in this case, the condition was more than normal perspiration, which today is known as hyperhidrosis, wherein the body produces an excess of the perspiration needed to regulate its temperature. This can be very embarrassing to its sufferers, both emotionally and physically. Camphire was the old world plant used to treat this condition, but no further information can be found as to how it was applied. Camphire (Lawsonia inermis) is also known as henna and has been used throughout time to dye hair and skin.

It was used by the medical fraternity over many centuries, but with no original date given as to when it was first used in the treatment of excessive perspiration.

Answer: Canker rash

One of the many symptoms associated with scarlet fever is its very characteristic body rash. Other symptoms are headaches, fever, swollen lymph nodes, a very sore throat and a deepening colour of the tongue known as strawberry tongue. This condition was possibly first described by Hippocrates back in 400 BC. By 1553 it had become known as "rossalia", with the differentiation made between it and the rash associated with measles, and various other names have been applied to it over time since then. It was known as a canker rash in the United States of America in the 1800s, where, along with its other symptoms, it presented itself with mouth ulcerations. These ulcerations were known as cankers.

Answer: Osteomyelitis

Osteomyelitis is an infection and inflammation of the bone. Its symptoms include pain, fever, and weakness in the areas it attacks. Many of its victims are children, where the long bones of the body are affected. In adults who are hit by the condition, it's the vertebrae and the pelvis which are affected most.

The onset of this condition can be gradual or sudden. Diagnosed by a series of clinical tests, the treatment for this condition can be quite drastic. Today this includes prolonged and high doses of antibiotics, surgery to remove dead or damaged tissue, of even the reintroduction of using maggots to eat any infected areas.

The old term, "caries of the bone", in use for some time prior to the 1860, when it first was recorded, very aptly sums up this condition.

Answer: Bees

The word cerate comes down to us from the Latin "cera" which translates to "wax". Cerate was an ointment made from the wax produced by bees. It was once widely used on any open wounds in order to speed up the healing process, from as early as the 1800s in many countries. Today, in the United States, this ointment, if used, is made from a mix of paraffin and lard.

It's surprising that the pharmacies there switched from beeswax, which is a natural product long used by man for lubricating, polish, candle making, skin care and for its curative products.

However, let us console ourselves with the possibility that, like the maggots, there will one day be a turn around to using this natural product once again.

Answer: Rickets

Rickets is a condition caused by a Vitamin D deficiency in a pregnant woman's blood which is, by default, shared by her child. Some of its causes include a lack of sunlight exposure by breast-feeding women, and a lack of Vitamin D and calcium in the diet of the child. The developing child may suffer from fractures of the bone as a result, or thickened ankles and wrists, bowed legs, knock knees, curvature of the spine, deformed chest, or soft skull bones. Many children born in the slums of industrialised cities in the 19th century suffered from this condition in particular, and it was the symptom of the weakened bowed legs, which curved outwards from supporting the weight of the rest of the child's body, that was given the cruel name of chicken-hammed during this period in history.

Answer: Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterised by an inability to distinguish between reality and the frightening perceptions of the world around them that a patient's mind has conceived. Its symptoms include false beliefs, confused sensory input, sometimes hearing sounds that do not exist, and other terrible frightening and confusing misinterpretations of their world. One of the worst aspects of this condition is the lack of knowledge about it by non-medical personnel - and their often cruel judgements.

It was known as early as 1672 as dementia praecox because the illness very often manifested itself in adolescents and young adults. Praecox was a Greek word that translated to "incompletely cooked" - referring, in this regard, to the age range of the condition's victims.