Tuberculosis is Romantic disease??

Clifford Riggleman: "It’s not a very romantic disease, after allThe 19th Century was rife with tuberculosis, and a lot of famous people died from it. Indeed, a whole lot of people who were not famous died from it too, with the tuberculosis death rate in Europe hovering around 30% during the 19th century. With that high level of infection, it’s not surprising that it affected many artists. The most obvious to my mind were the Bronte siblings: Emily, Anne and Branwell. (Poor Charlotte died from hyperemesis during pregnancy.) Other famous victims of tuberculosis (although sometimes ex post facto diagnosis is sketchy) were Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Lord Byron, Robert Burns, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Washington Irving, Paul Gauguin, Frédéric Chopin, and on and on. (Here’s a pretty complete list.) It got to the point where these writers and artists, by being visible symbols of the disease, helped tuberculosis take on a romantic cast, with the image of the frail, flame chee! ked, coughing genius dying gracefully on the chaise longue. The reality, of course, is much uglier."...Show more