Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is an infectious disease usually caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in which case it is known as latent tuberculosis. Around 10% of latent infections progress to active disease which, if left untreated, kill about half of those affected. Typical symptoms of active TB are chronic cough with blood-containing mucus, fever, night sweats, and weight loss. Infection of other organs can cause a wide range of symptoms.
A sanatorium, also sanitarium or sanitorium, is a historic name for a specialised hospital for the treatment of specific diseases, related ailments and convalescence. Sanatoriums are often in a healthy climate, usually in the countryside. The idea of healing was an important reason for the historical wave of establishments of sanatoriums, especially at the end of the 19th- and early 20th centuries. One sought, for instance, the healing of consumptives especially tuberculosis or alcoholism, but also of more obscure addictions and longings of hysteria, masturbation, fatigue and emotional exhaustion. Facility operators were often charitable associations such as the Order of St. John and the newly founded social welfare insurance companies.
Royal Brompton Hospital is the largest specialist heart and lung medical centre in the United Kingdom. It is managed by Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust.
Tambaram Sanatorium is a southern suburb of Chennai, India. Located between Chromepet and Tambaram, the neighbourhood is served by Tambaram Sanatorium railway station on the Chennai Beach–Villupuram section via Tambaram of the Chennai suburban railway.
George Bodington (1799–1882) was a British general practitioner and pulmonary specialist.
Through its effect on the world's population and major artists in various fields, tuberculosis has appeared in many forms in human culture. The disease was for centuries associated with poetic and artistic qualities in its sufferers, and was known as "the romantic disease". Many artistic figures, including the poet John Keats, the composer Frédéric Chopin and the artist Edvard Munch, either had the disease or were close to others who did.
The Hunterian Society, founded in 1819 in honour of the Scottish surgeon John Hunter (1728–1793), is a society of physicians and dentists based in London.
The history of tuberculosis encompasses the origins of the disease, tuberculosis (TB) through to the vaccines and treatments methods developed to contain and mitigate its impact.
The Goulstonian Lectures are an annual lecture series given on behalf of the Royal College of Physicians in London. They began in 1639. The lectures are named for Theodore Goulston, who founded them with a bequest. By his will, dated 26 April 1632, he left £200 to the College of Physicians of London to found a lectureship, to be held in each year by one of the four youngest doctors of the college. These lectures were annually delivered from 1639, and have continued for more than three centuries. Up to the end of the 19th century, the spelling Gulstonian was often used. In many cases the lectures have been published.
The Bradshaw Lectures are lectureships given at the invitation of the Royal College of Physicians and the Royal College of Surgeons of England. It is held on alternate years in rotation with the Hunterian Oration.
Sir William James Wanless FACS was a Canadian-born surgeon, humanitarian and Presbyterian missionary who founded a medical mission in Miraj, India in 1894 and led it for nearly 40 years. As part of this mission, Dr. Wanless founded Maharashtra's first missionary medical school in 1897, and helped to establish a leprosy sanatorium as well as a tuberculosis hospital, now known as the Wanless Chest Hospital.
Government Hospital of Thoracic Medicine, popularly known as the Tambaram TB Sanatorium, is a major state-owned hospital situated in Chennai, India. The hospital is funded and managed by the state government of Tamil Nadu. It was founded in 1928.
The town of Colorado Springs, Colorado, played an important role in the history of tuberculosis in the era before antituberculosis drugs and vaccines. Tuberculosis management before this era was difficult and often of limited effect. In the 19th century, a movement for tuberculosis treatment in hospital-like facilities called sanatoriums became prominent, especially in Europe and North America. Thus people sought tuberculosis treatment in Colorado Springs because of its dry climate and fresh mountain air. Some people stayed in boarding houses, while others sought the hospital-like facilities of sanatoriums. In the 1880s and 1890s, it is estimated that one-third of the people living in Colorado Springs had tuberculosis. The number of sanatoriums and hospitals increased into the twentieth century. During World War II, medicines were developed that successfully treated tuberculosis and by the late 1940s specialized tuberculosis treatment facilities were no longer needed.
The Milroy Lectures are given on topics in public health, to the Royal College of Physicians, London. They were set up by money left by Gavin Milroy, who died in 1886.
Charles Theodore Williams FRCP, MVO was an English physician, known as a leading authority on pulmonary tuberculosis.
William Cecil Bosanquet was an English physician and classical scholar.
The International Congress on Tuberculosis was a series of major congresses held between 1899 and 1912 in which scientists and physicians exchanged information on tuberculosis, a significant cause of death at the time.
Eleanor Soltau (1877–1962) was an English doctor who led the first unit of the Scottish Women's Hospitals for Foreign Service in Serbia.
Charles Emmanuel Reinhardt (1868–1920) was a British physician, animal welfare activist and anti-vivisectionist.
Robert Young Keers FRSE FRCPE FRCPSG (1908–1982) was a 20th-century Irish-born physician and medical author. He was an expert in tuberculosis and battled with the disease both personally and in his duties.
