Author: Schleiner, Winfried

Source: Early Science and Medicine, Volume 14, Number 5, 2009 , pp. 661-676(16)

Publisher: BRILL

Abstract:

In early modern medicine, both green sickness (or chlorosis) and hysteria were understood to be gendered diseases, diseases of women. Green sickness, a disease of young women, was considered so serious that John Graunt, the father of English statistics, thought that in his time dozens of women died of it in London every year. One of the symptoms of hysteria was that women fell unconscious. The force of etymology and medical tradition was so strong that in one instance the gender of the patient seems to have been changed by the recorder to make the case fit medical theory.

Keywords: GREEN SICKNESS; PRE-FREUDIAN HYSTERIA; CHLOROSIS; VIRGIN'S DISEASE; GENDERED DISEASES; MELANCHOLY; SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION; JOHN GRAUNT; STOPPING OF THE STOMACH; RODRIGO A CASTRO; SUFFOCATION OF THE MOTHER; STRANGULATIO UTERI; EDWARD JORDEN; PETER FOREEST; VESALIUS; HELEN KING; GAIL PASTER; LESEL DAWSON

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/138374209X12465448337628

Affiliations: 1: Department of English, University of California, 1 Shields Avenue, Davis, CA 95616, USA

Publication date: 2009-09-01

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