Cholera

Part of speech: noun (n.)

One of several diseases affecting the digestive and intestinal tract and more or less dangerous to life, esp. the one commonly called Asiatic cholera. Asiatic cholera, a malignant and rapidly fatal disease, originating in Asia and frequently epidemic in the more filthy sections of other lands, to which the germ or specific poison may have been carried. It is characterized by diarrhea, rice- water evacuations, vomiting, cramps, pinched expression, and lividity, rapidly passing into a state of collapse, followed by death, or by a stage of reaction of fever. -- Cholera bacillus. See Comma bacillus. -- Cholera infantum, a dangerous summer disease, of infants, caused by hot weather, bad air, or poor milk, and especially fatal in large cities. -- Cholera morbus, a disease characterized by vomiting and purging, with gripings and cramps, usually caused by imprudence in diet or by gastrointestinal disturbance. -- Chicken cholera. See under Chicken. -- Hog cholera. See under Hog. -- Sporadic cholera, a disease somewhat resembling the Asiatic cholera, but originating where it occurs, and rarely becoming epidemic.