Tuberculosis

Smith provides a list of the many compounds and practices in popular use during the 19th century against the disease (40-43, 45-46). Scrofula was believed to be primarily hereditary, and was usually attacked by a variety of infusions and anti-inflammatory applications including gentian, lime water washes, lead ointments, and hot bread or yeast poultices. By the 1830's, the French were enthused with iodine, using it in tinctures both orally and in baths. Mercurial pills appeared by the early 1840's, along with the

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iated air (non-renewed in a crowded, enclosed space) caused tuberculosis, while ventilated air and sunlight protected against it. á While tuberculosis was the leading cause of death in 19th France, resistance to the idea that tuberculosis was a communicable, germ-caused illness was as common there as elsewhere. Barnes observes that in 1830, it was considered 'an individual, inscrutable, all but random killer, probably hereditary and somehow related to passion" (50). This notion that the killer was somehow tied to emotional instability led to a romantic, literary idea of the disease that is unparalleled in history. Incidence was associated with artists and highly strung, creative personalities; tuberculosis claimed the lives of Chopin, Keats, Stevenson, and likely the entire Bronte family. By 1840, being a consumptive woman was, to certain minds, significant with "heightened emotion and sensitivity, and a capacity for redemptive suffering" (Barnes 13-14). Rubin notes that much of the crucial medical associations of etiology began with RenT Ladnnec who, prompted by the need to more fully investigate pulmonary diseases, invented the stethoscope in 1816. Considered one of the leaders of the attack on tuberculosis, he originated
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1784
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)

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