Emily Dickinson Lexicon

YAWS, n. [African yaw, a raspberry.]

A disease called, by Good, Rubula, from rubus, a raspberry. It is characterized by cutaneous tumors numerous and successive; gradually increasing from specks to the size of a raspberry; one, at length, growing larger than the rest; core a fungous excrescence; fever slight, and probably irritative merely. It is commonly supposed to be contagious, and to occur but once during life; but, both of these points are doubtful. It is sometimes called frambœsia, a barbarous name derived from the French framboise, a raspberry. There are two varieties of this disease, which differ considerably; the one occurring in Africa, the other in America. It is scarcely known in Europe. – Good.