SECTION in. 



GENERAL DISORDERS OF NUTRITION WHICH DO 

 NOT DEPEND UPON INFECTION. 



CHAPTER I. 



CHLOROSIS. 



ETIOLOGY. The subjects of anaemia and hydraemia belong rather to 

 the province of general pathology, since such anomalies of the quan- 

 tity and quality of the blood never arise as independent affections, but 

 always appear as an accompaniment or consequence of other diseases. 

 The state of the blood which gives rise to the condition known as 

 chlorosis differs from that which induces hydraemia. In chlorosis, only 

 the cellular elements of the blood are diminished in number, while its 

 quantum of serum, albumen, and saline constituents, is generally nor- 

 mal. In hydraemia, on the other hand, not only is the blood poor in 

 cellular elements, but its serum is deficient in albumen, and it probably 

 is overcharged with salts. A chlorotic state of the blood (oligocythae- 

 mia, VogeT) often develops with a certain degree of independence ; or, 

 to speak more accurately, it frequently arises without our being able 

 to perceive any morbid condition which, by augmenting the consump- 

 tion of the blood, or by diminishing its production, might induce chlo- 

 rosis, and which generally can be discovered in anaemia and hydraemia. 

 In the present chapter it is the former class of cases alone with which 

 we have to do, and we shall not notice those rare instances in which 

 oligocythaemia develops as a symptom in certain diseases. 



In females between the ages of fourteen and twenty-four, chlorosis 

 is one of the most common of disorders. It is very natural, then, to 

 ascribe the disease to the effects of those processes which are going 

 on in the bodies of young girls at the period of puberty; but we 

 are still ignorant as to what physiological connection exists be- 

 tween the two conditions. We know equally little of the causes 



