ABSTRACT
Tuberculosis has served historians well. Histories of disease are a means of understanding the social milieu and political order in which they occur. 1 The association of tuberculosis with creativity and the arts has been a fertile field of investigation. 2 Reviewing past attempts to heal meshes with histories of travel, spas, architecture, quackery and drug discovery. 3 The history of preventing tuberculosis, from vaccines to anti-spitting legislation, incorporates a wide range of approaches to public health. 4 The involvement of the closely related disease of cattle engages with the study of zoonoses and the growing scrutiny of the animal/human health nexus. 5 Unravelling the causative micro-organism’s past is part of the increasing use of molecular technologies informing history. 6
