Medicine: Chlorosis

Chlorosis, an affliction of young women through the ages, has recently disappeared from the records of Medicine. Last week Professor Willis Marion Fowler, 35, of the University of Iowa, published its obituary in the Annals of Medical History.

Victims of chlorosis were usually maidens in their middle teens. Physically they always seemed well-nourished. Their skin, however, had a greenish-yellow tinge, especially in brunettes. There was a bluish cast to the whites of their eyes. Such chlorotic girls constantly complained of being tired. They had capricious appetites, often preferred sour things like pickles.

Egvptians 3,500 years ago suffered from an “AAA disease” which resembled chlorosis, was represented hieroglyphically by a schematic phallus. In the Middle Ages doctors called, it morbus virgineus (virgin’s disease). Shakespeare called it greensickness. Victims were favorite subjects for portraiture. Best of such paintings is Gerard Dou’s Mal d’ Amour (see cut), which hangs in Buckingham Palace.

The disease was usually treated with pills containing iron, of which there was a deficiency in the red blood cells of chlorotic girls. Their blood clotted with difficulty. Hard-working country girls were afflicted less than idle city girls. Peculiarly, in Russia city girls were immune.

Dr. Fowler lists many guesses concerning the cause of chlorosis: menstrual difficulties, unrequited love, sudden fright, fallen stomachs, tight corsets, constipation, poor ventilation, overwork. Says he : “Probably the most logical view was . . . a long-continued iron deficiency in the diet.” Despite those guesses “the reasons for the disappearance of chlorosis remain in darkness, and with its disappearance the explanation of its etiology becomes increasingly difficult.”