Vapours (disease)
The term referring to illnesses known as the vapours (or vapors) is an archaic form for certain mental or physical states,[1] such as hysteria, mania, clinical depression, bipolar disorder, fainting, withdrawal syndrome, mood swings, or PMS, ascribed primarily to women and thought to be caused by internal emanations. This is related to the similar term female hysteria. Vapours were considered to be the female equivalent to melancholy found in men.
The word vapours was used to describe a depressed or hysterical nervous condition.[2] Today, the phrase 'a case of the vapors' is most often used sarcastically or for comic effect.
Victorian era
In the Victorian era, a variety of conditions which affected women were referred to as vapours. Women's tight corsets squeezed their internal organs, this was believed to be cause of the vapours. The expression that someone "has a case of the vapors" was sometimes used to describe a person in a state of emotional agitation.