That the emaciating and pallor-inducing effects of tuberculosis were considered attractive in the Victorian era—even desirable—undermined the lethal nature of the disease. François Gregoire & Co. advertisement, 1866. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress.
Unlike other serious illnesses of the time, pulmonary tuberculosis was associated with fragility and sexual attractiveness. The consumptive appearance entailed dramatically pale skin, an ethereal thinness, with red cheeks and a feverish glow.
The Victorians romanticized the disease and the effects it caused in the gradual build to death. For decades, many beauty standards emulated or highlighted these effects. And as scientists gained greater understanding of the disease and how it was spread, the disease continued to keep its hold on fashion.
Yet, during the late 18th and early 19th centuries, cultural ideas about beauty intertwined with the reality of tuberculosis (known as consumption or phthisis), allowing the ravages of the illness to be seen as markers of beauty.
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.
By the Victorian era, both the disease and its symptoms had been thoroughly romanticized, and for decades many beauty standards emulated the effects of the disease.
Tuberculosis has been strongly linked to creativity due to its long association with art, literature and the Romantic Movement. It has even been linked to fashion and Lord Byron famously declared:“How pale I look!
There is a stigma associated with having tuberculosis because the disease is commonly viewed as a 'dirty disease'. This stigma can have a negative impact on an individual and may delay the person seeking treatment.
In the 1700s, TB was called “the white plague” due to the paleness of the patients. TB was commonly called “consumption” in the 1800s even after Schonlein named it tuberculosis. During this time, TB was also called the “Captain of all these men of death.”
The ideal nineteenth century beauty had pale, almost translucent skin, rosy cheeks, crimson lips, white teeth, and sparkling eyes. She was waspishly thin with elegant collarbones. However, physical appearance alone was not enough to ensure that one would be seen as beautiful or socially acceptable.
A Brief History Of TB
Although TB-related mortality rates have mostly gone down a lot in the 21st century, a diagnosis of tuberculosis was considered as good as a death sentence in the ancient and medieval ages.
[2] The disease was so common and so terrible that it was often equated with death itself. Tuberculosis was primarily a disease of the city, where crowded and often filthy living conditions provided an ideal environment for the spread of the disease. The urban poor represented the vast majority of TB victims.
MTB can exhibit genetic resistance that is heritable and fixed, as well as phenotypic, reversible resistance to administered antibiotics. The presence of genetic drug resistance in some or all of the infecting bacteria dictates the need for multidrug therapy [2,4].
Standing for capitalist exploitation or over-consumption, used as a trope for luxury and deprivation, Victorian novelists thus capitalized on the polyvalent meanings of tuberculosis, most especially in social problem novels, since the disease could serve as a “powerful leveller of class” (68).
About one quarter of the world's population is infected with tuberculosis (TB) bacteria. Only a small proportion of those infected will become sick with TB. People with weakened immune systems have a much greater risk of falling ill from TB. A person living with HIV is about 20 times more likely to develop active TB.
In 1869, Jean Antoine Villemin demonstrated that the disease was indeed contagious, conducting an experiment in which tuberculous matter from human cadavers was injected into laboratory rabbits, which then became infected. On 24 March 1882, Robert Koch revealed the disease was caused by an infectious agent.
TB is not spread through sexual intercourse or kissing or other touch. TB bacteria are spread through the air from one person to another. When a person who has TB disease of the lungs or throat coughs, speaks, or sings, TB bacteria are spread in the air.
Despite the notoriety of the bubonic plague, its death toll is relatively small compared to tuberculosis (TB) – a bacterial infection that affects the lungs. To this day, TB has been responsible for the deaths of one billion people, a number that makes it the second biggest global killer in history after malaria.
The name Tuberculosis comes from the nodules, called 'tubercles', which form in the lymph nodes and other affected tissues of affected animals. Cattle are considered to be the major reservoir M. bovis, and are the main source of infection for humans.
tuberculosis is an obligate-aerobic, nonmotile, non-spore-forming, catalase-negative, and facultative intracellular bacteria. The high lipid content of M. tuberculosis gives it many unique clinical characteristics. These include resistance to several antibiotics and the ability to survive in many extreme conditions.
Due to the taboo that surrounds Tuberculosis, infected people are often ostracized and shunned from the society that they once lived in.
Tuberculosis (TB) is a contagious, infectious disease, due to Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MT) that has always been a permanent challenge over the course of human history, because of its severe social implications. It has been hypothesized that the genus Mycobacterium originated more than 150 million years ago.
Rheumatic disease is an umbrella term that refers to arthritis and several other conditions that affect the joints, tendons, muscle, ligaments, bones, and muscles (arthritis refers to disorders that mainly affect the joints).
Today, tuberculosis is considered largely controlled in the U.S., but it is still a bigger threat than most people know. According to the CDC, there are an estimated 13 million people in the United States living with inactive TB.