The Village doctor; or, The art of curing diseases rendered familiar and …, 1825
I was reading about pimples in 1825, and stumbled upon this entry on green sickness, which I was heretofore woefully ignorant of. The above copy cut off just as it was getting in to the “good stuff”, so naturally I went a-googling in search of more info.
Green sickness, later called chlorosis, was not identified as hypochromic anemia until the 1930s. Although clearly there was recognition in the Regency era of its relationship to iron, I think the full connection to anemia was not quite understood.
Because it was observed to effective mainly pubescent girls, it was thought as early as the 1500s to be a “disease of virgins” (Green Sickness: Hippocrates, Galen and the Origins of the “Disease of Virgins”, 1996, International Journal of the Classic Tradition).
Hyperchromic anemia generically describes any type of anemia where red blood are paler than normal, and may be caused by iron deficiency, infections (hookworks), lead poisoning, or certain types of hereditary disorders like Benjamin syndrome.
Pica, or unusual food cravings, occur with the iron deficiency type.
Modern domestic medicine … The fourth edition, 1829
