Chlorosis -the "green sickness"

The literature of the nineteenth century often referred to chlorosis. Some examples, taken from French sources, are mentioned. The illness was only given its name at the beginning of the seventeenth century, but the clinical picture of febris alba virginum had been known for a long time previously. The history of chlorosis is interesting because of the variety of explanations, including the psychological, it attracted before it came to be recognized as due to hypochromic anaemia or iron deficiency.