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The Disease of Virgins
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 parallels with the modern illness of anorexia. Examining its roots in the classical tradition all the way through to its extraordinary survival into the 1920s, this study asks a number of questions about the nature of the disease itself and the relationship between illness, body images and what we should call‘normal’ behaviour. This is a fascinating and clear account which will prove invaluable not just to students of classical studies, but will be of interest to medical professionals also.
206 pages, Hardcover
Published September 4, 2003
103 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
October 13, 2015
Phenomenally well researched and a genuine masterwork of the history of medicine. The only downside is its organization makes it difficult to follow. For as specialized as the subject matter is, King manages to avoid jargon or overly-complex and obfuscating theory-based sentences. Her diction is concise, and so is the book (only about 140 pages of main text). That said, too often it felt like materials which should have been in footnotes made it into the body of the text: extra supporting evidence, qualifications, asides, etc. This bulks up the total pages of the main text, but serves as a constant distraction when trying to track the flow of King's argument itself. The chapter headings and sub-chapter headings accordingly seem, at times, to apply only to portions of the given chapter or sub-chapter. Further, her promised analysis of Chlorosis in terms of its social agenda does not receive its own chapter or summative treatment, but is instead scattered throughout the text. Where it pops up, which is often, it is engaging and persuasive, but holding it all together in one's head while encountering many of these figures / texts / etc. for the first time is a challenging task for the reader. A tough read, but well worth it.
In terms of content, the text covers the history of the Disease of Virgins, later called Chlorosis, and sometimes called the pale sickness or green sickness. That history stretches from the mid-16th c. to the early 20th c. King does not speculate on what this illness may have "really" been according to our diagnostic principles today; she is instead interested in it as a social reality, and here she rests on solid theoretical grounds (in terms of what an historian can actually discuss from her sources). Because the 16th c. authors drew on symptoms and illnesses of prior centuries (both immediate and ancient), King ends up giving an extensive treatment of medicine ranging from pre-Hippocratic antiquity, to Hippocratic medicine (which includes a text on the disease of virgins cited by the Renaissance authors), to Galen, through late-antiquity's reception of Galen/Hippocrates, through the Middle Ages (to which the 16th c. doctors were responding), and up through the whole history of the disease itself to its decline in the 20th c. That scope makes the text, for all of its particular specificity, a functional introduction to the history of Western medicine, though this is an inductive rather than expository introduction.
The basic thesis, if I am correctly extrapolating it, is that chlorosis functioned to pathologize certain unwanted traits or behaviors in pubescent girls. Its supposed causes evolved as the social need it fulfilled evolved, though this was never a tidy or straightforward process. It argued for early marriage (marriage was a cure for it), careful regulation of diet (sometimes because the liver was blamed, sometimes because the blood itself was blamed), and careful regulation of regimen (exercise, rest, education, etc.). As the social functions it encouraged (early marriage, close association of family and doctor) gave way to late-modernity (late marriage, institutionalized medicine), so also to the illness itself decline, with the laboratory's ability to reassign its symptoms to other more specific causes providing the warrant for its demise as a socially recognized illness.
In terms of content, the text covers the history of the Disease of Virgins, later called Chlorosis, and sometimes called the pale sickness or green sickness. That history stretches from the mid-16th c. to the early 20th c. King does not speculate on what this illness may have "really" been according to our diagnostic principles today; she is instead interested in it as a social reality, and here she rests on solid theoretical grounds (in terms of what an historian can actually discuss from her sources). Because the 16th c. authors drew on symptoms and illnesses of prior centuries (both immediate and ancient), King ends up giving an extensive treatment of medicine ranging from pre-Hippocratic antiquity, to Hippocratic medicine (which includes a text on the disease of virgins cited by the Renaissance authors), to Galen, through late-antiquity's reception of Galen/Hippocrates, through the Middle Ages (to which the 16th c. doctors were responding), and up through the whole history of the disease itself to its decline in the 20th c. That scope makes the text, for all of its particular specificity, a functional introduction to the history of Western medicine, though this is an inductive rather than expository introduction.
The basic thesis, if I am correctly extrapolating it, is that chlorosis functioned to pathologize certain unwanted traits or behaviors in pubescent girls. Its supposed causes evolved as the social need it fulfilled evolved, though this was never a tidy or straightforward process. It argued for early marriage (marriage was a cure for it), careful regulation of diet (sometimes because the liver was blamed, sometimes because the blood itself was blamed), and careful regulation of regimen (exercise, rest, education, etc.). As the social functions it encouraged (early marriage, close association of family and doctor) gave way to late-modernity (late marriage, institutionalized medicine), so also to the illness itself decline, with the laboratory's ability to reassign its symptoms to other more specific causes providing the warrant for its demise as a socially recognized illness.
February 1, 2016
Equal parts fascinating and annoying! Fascinating to look at the changes in how diseases associated with women have been treated over the years and annoying to read how a woman's reproductive system was used to classify her as inferior. One term that particularly stood out was 'uterine fury' a disease honestly believed to exist before the 19th century. Finally, one especially interesting fact was how the term 'virgin' or 'parthenos' has changed from meaning merely an unmarried woman, not necessarily sexually inexperienced, to meaning those who have not had sex at all. Overall, an interesting read.
December 31, 2024
I have had this book on my list for a few years and finally got around to reading it. While it was incredibly interesting to read the long and ancient history of medicine's interpretation and reinterpretation of how to 'other' women's bodies and health (spoiler: everything wrong with a young woman can be cured by being tied to a male and getting pregnant), the format was not as enjoyable to read as I had hoped.
That being said, King has accomplished a herculean task of organizing texts and references to the enigmatic 'chlorosis' or green sickness or the disease of virgins, of which references stretch back to Hippocrates and into the 1900's. It is a grim reminder of how young our understanding of gynecology truly is, as these belief systems only began to be overhauled after World War 1 and still appear as artefacts today (i.e. the sometimes recommended cure to endometriosis is pregnancy). This collection of resources detailing the controlling, paternalistic, and misguided assumptions about what menstruation and puberty means for a young woman helps to contextualize the evolution of Western society, gender roles and highlights the need for education, research and equitable care in our medical institutions today.
That being said, King has accomplished a herculean task of organizing texts and references to the enigmatic 'chlorosis' or green sickness or the disease of virgins, of which references stretch back to Hippocrates and into the 1900's. It is a grim reminder of how young our understanding of gynecology truly is, as these belief systems only began to be overhauled after World War 1 and still appear as artefacts today (i.e. the sometimes recommended cure to endometriosis is pregnancy). This collection of resources detailing the controlling, paternalistic, and misguided assumptions about what menstruation and puberty means for a young woman helps to contextualize the evolution of Western society, gender roles and highlights the need for education, research and equitable care in our medical institutions today.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews