Overview

During the late nineteenth century, tuberculosis, the "white plague," was the leading cause of death throughout the United States and Western Europe. Then, in 1882, a German physician named Robert Koch (1843-1910) discovered the bacterium that causes tuberculosis. With proof that the disease is caused by an infectious agent, doctors and public health officials could turn their attention toward preventing and curing it. An enormous industry sprang up around tuberculosis sanitariums—facilities where infected people would go for months or years, in the hopes that healthy living would cure them. At the same time, cities took the first steps toward implementing public health measures designed to control the spread of disease. Many of these...