Historical cause of death 1700s-1900s
What did marasmus mean on a death certificate?
On a death record, marasmus meant an infant or child wasting away without an obvious disease to blame. In modern terms it usually pointed to severe malnutrition, often from unsafe artificial feeding. Marasmus deaths concentrate among hand-fed babies before pasteurised milk; a wet-nursed sibling surviving is part of the same story. Expect it on records mostly 1700s-1900s.
Also written on records as: atrophy, wasting, tabes mesenterica.
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Related terms
Browse the full genealogy records glossary for more occupations, causes of death, and legal terms.
FAQs
What is marasmus called today?+
Severe malnutrition, often from unsafe artificial feeding, broadly speaking. Doctors of the period diagnosed without laboratory tests, so one label often covered several conditions we would now separate. This page explains historical record language and is not medical advice.
How was marasmus written on death records?+
Clerks and doctors also wrote atrophy, wasting, and tabes mesenterica. Spelling wandered from register to register, so check every variant before you decide a record is missing or wrong.
Where do these definitions come from?+
They are drawn from period dictionaries, government archive glossaries, and standard genealogy references, cross-checked against each other; provenance is documented with the dataset. Inside AncestorIQ, Deep Research reads the record itself and explains terms like this in context, against your ancestor's own document.
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