1st Edition
The Disease of Virgins Green Sickness, Chlorosis and the Problems of Puberty
By Helen King
Copyright 2004
208 Pages
by
Routledge
206 Pages
by
Routledge
208 Pages
by
Routledge
Also available as eBook on:
From an acclaimed author in the field, this is a compelling study of the origins and history of the disease commonly seen as afflicting young unmarried girls.
Understanding of the condition turned puberty and virginity into medical conditions, and Helen King stresses the continuity of this disease through history,depsite enormous shifts in medical understanding and technonologies, and drawing... Read more
Introduction, 1 The nature of green sickness, The humoral body, From green jaundice to green sickness, Green sickness and the disease of virgins, How green was green sickness? Green sickness and love sickness, 2 A new disease? The classical sources for the disease of virgins, Lange’s letter, Hippocratic virginity, The transmission of On the disease of virgins, What is a virgin? Other possible Hippocratic sources, ‘Some unknown monster’: the challenge of ‘new’ diseases, 3 The menstruating virgin, The Galenic physiology of menstruation, Alternative theories of menstruation, Letting blood in the Hippocratic and Galenic bodies, ‘Marriage is a sovereign cure’, The problem of puberty, The philosophy of puberty, Town and country, 4 Dietary factors, Food and the growth of the body, Pica, Green sickness as a liver disorder, Constipation 5 ‘The laboratory came to the rescue’: technology and chlorosis, The pulse, The stethoscope, Blood testing, Treatments, Shall we dance? Rest, Alternatives to orthodoxy, Women physicians and chlorosis, Conclusion
Biography
Helen King
