Daily AncestorChlorosis
Chlorosis, or green sickness, was a form of anemia from lack of iron that gave the skin a pale greenish tint, diagnosed mostly in young women.
The name comes from a Greek word for pale green. Patients were tired, short of breath and pale, with poor appetite. Older writers linked it to young unmarried women and invented odd theories about its cause.
Modern doctors see most of it as iron deficiency anemia. On its own it was rarely fatal, so a death from chlorosis may hide another illness.
As seen in a recordCause of death column, 1850 to 1880 federal mortality schedule
Ellen Ward, 18, F, W, March, Chlorosis
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Daily Ancestor. "Chlorosis." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/causes-of-death/chlorosis. Last checked 2026-10-01.