The "Declownification" of medical diagnoses has continued for a long time. I met a medical historian giving a tour of the apothecary shop in Colonial Williamsburg who described how "consumption" was a clown car of tuberculosis, lung cancer, black lung (from mining), and a host of other lung ailments.

Over time each was identified as something unique, given a more precise name and treatment methods and eventually nobody is diagnosed with "consumption" anymore.