I found the death certificates [actually cause of death listed in church records.] Two of my g-aunts had "brain fever" listed as the cause of death. Both women were in their 20s and had four healthy children. Recently I read a phrase in a novel that said someone died of "brain fever" and then said "what we would today call a nervous breakdown." That does not make sense to me. Anyone know the answer? Marilyn Kline Washington

Nice website for old medical terms: http://www.thornber.net/medicine/html/medgloss.html It does list your 'brain fever' as meningitis and typhus~ Emma Noye On Thu, Sep 1, 2011 at 7:02 PM, marilyn <[email protected]> wrote: > > I found the death certificates [actually cause of death listed in > church records.] Two of my g-aunts had "brain fever" listed as the cause of > death. Both women were in their 20s and had four healthy children. > Recently I read a phrase in a novel that said someone died of "brain > fever" and then said "what we would today call a nervous breakdown." That > does not make sense to me. Anyone know the answer? > > > Marilyn Kline Washington > - - - - - - - - - - > > Search for more Cambria County information on our webpage: > http://www.camgenpa.com/ > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message >

Hello Marilyn, I found this on Wikipedia: Brain fever describes a medical condition where a part of the brain becomes inflamed and causes symptoms that present as fever. The terminology is dated, and is encountered most often in Victorian literature. Conditions that may be described as brain fever include: Encephalitis, an acute inflammation of the brain, commonly caused by a viral infection. Meningitis, the inflammation of the membranes covering the brain and spinal cord. Either of these conditions can cause fever and death but I would also assume if one had either of these diseases their behavior might mimic someone who has had a nervous breakdown. Hope this helps some. Robert McGonigle > To: [email protected] > From: [email protected] > Date: Thu, 1 Sep 2011 21:02:03 -0400 > Subject: [PACAMBRI] Brain Fever > > > I found the death certificates [actually cause of death listed in church records.] Two of my g-aunts had "brain fever" listed as the cause of death. Both women were in their 20s and had four healthy children. > Recently I read a phrase in a novel that said someone died of "brain fever" and then said "what we would today call a nervous breakdown." That does not make sense to me. Anyone know the answer? > > > Marilyn Kline Washington > - - - - - - - - - - > > Search for more Cambria County information on our webpage: > http://www.camgenpa.com/ > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

Hi Marilyn, Please tell me if your g-aunts died in Cambria Co (and perhaps neighbors that both picked up the same infection) and approximate dates. I did see meningitis, brain fever, and inflammation of the brain used as causes of death in the latest (1880) Cambria Co mortality schedule. In other on line cause of death lists, the authors say "brain fever" has been used to describe meningitis, encephalitis and occasionally heat stroke. Did not see that "brain fever" and a "nervous breakdown" were interchangeable terms. Depending on the year of death, the death certificate might list "immediate cause of death" and a separate "due to" diagnosis . You probably won't be able to determine which disease the brain fever term is referring to without that information and even then you still may never know. Regards, Jane Tripp ----- Original Message ----- From: marilyn To: [email protected] Sent: Thursday, September 01, 2011 8:02 PM Subject: [PACAMBRI] Brain Fever I found the death certificates [actually cause of death listed in church records.] Two of my g-aunts had "brain fever" listed as the cause of death. Both women were in their 20s and had four healthy children. Recently I read a phrase in a novel that said someone died of "brain fever" and then said "what we would today call a nervous breakdown." That does not make sense to me. Anyone know the answer? Marilyn Kline Washington - - - - - - - - - -