19. Tuberculosis (II): After Robert Koch

Epidemics in Western Society Since 1600 (HIST 234)

The cultural transition from the romantic era of consumption to the era of tuberculosis derived not only from the germ theory of disease and the triumph of contagionism over anticontagionism, but also from political considerations. Worries over population decline and growing working-class militancy were aggravated by what now appeared to be a social disease, or a disease of poverty. One of the strategies deployed against the disease was the sanatorium, an institution which was capable both of instructing patients in contagionism and in imposing a practical quarantine. Although the development of effective chemotherapy in the 1940s raised hopes that tuberculosis might be globally eradicated, these have unfortunately proven to be overly optimistic. Factors such as poverty and population displacement continue to favor the disease's spread today, particularly in the Third World.

00:00 - Chapter 1. The Age of Tuberculosis
05:58 - Chapter 2. War on Tuberculosis: Sanatoria
30:23 - Chapter 3. Pneumothorax and Dispensaries
39:23 - Chapter 4. Vaccination and Antibiotics

Complete course materials are available at the Open Yale Courses website: http://open.yale.edu/courses

This course was recorded in Spring 2010.