The diseases called chlorosis

Abstract

SynopsisIt is suggested that chlorosis, or the ‘green-sickness’, was not a single disease entity, but a name applied to at least two distinct conditions affecting young females in the past. The first (‘chloro-anaemia’) was a form of hypochromic anaemia possibly associated with gastric ulceration and poor diet. This form predominated in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The second (‘chloro-anorexia’) was a disorder of psychogenic origin resembling, but not identical to, anorexia nervosa. The latter form predominated in earlier periods but also occurred throughout the nineteenth century; it was also known as ‘the virgin's disease’ or ‘febris amatoria’. The ‘green’ of‘;green-sickness’ may originally have indicated innocence rather than a green colour of the skin.