In archaic usage, the vapours (or vapors) is a mental, psychological, or physical state,[1] such as hysteria, mania, clinical depression, bipolar disorder, lightheadedness, fainting, flush, withdrawal syndrome, mood swings, or PMS in which a sufferer loses mental focus.
Ascribed primarily to women and thought to be caused by internal emanations (vapours) from the womb, it was related to the concept of female hysteria.
The word "vapours" was subsequently used to describe a depressed or hysterical nervous condition.
However, even at the end of 19th century, scientific innovation had still not reached some places, where the only known therapies were those proposed by Galen.
[3] Before the Victorian era, a variety of conditions which affected women were referred to as "a case of the vapours".