Phthisic Chic. A history of beauty, fashion, and illness

Why, of all diseases common in the XVIII-XIX centuries, it was the consumption that became aesthetically attractive and even fashionable? How are the symptoms of tuberculosis closer to the generally accepted standards of beauty, and the ailment itself in the language of culture acquired romantic connotations? The author talks about the contradictory history of tuberculosis on the example of a number of families affected by him in Europe at the end of the 18th and first half of the 19th century. Its analysis is devoted to the development of the disease mainly in England, various assessments of tuberculosis, which were given by the doctors of the era of romanticism and sentimentalism, as well as the cultural interpretations of the disease and their dependence on the change of public moods. In the work of Karolin A. A de tuberculosis, it appears to be a phenomenon of not only medicine, but also fashion. The data of the natural sciences and the conclusions of humanitarian disciplines are equally important for the main task of the study - the identification of logic, with which culture and society have comprehended this deadly disease.
Karolin A. A de - Professor Furman University, specialist in the philosophy of science and history