Before ‘The San’: Tuberculosis in Hamilton at the Turn of the Twentieth Century

Abstract

<p>At the turn of the twentieth century, tuberculosis was declining in Canada, but the effects of industrialization and urbanization created ideal conditions for continued spread of the disease. Living in a thriving urban-industrial center, the people of Hamilton were deeply affected by tuberculosis. This book tells their story through topics that range from geographic and demographic patterns of tuberculosis deaths within the city, folk and medical treatments, the sanatorium movement that led to the building of the Hamilton Mountain Sanatorium in 1906, and cultural constructions of health and disease in Hamilton. Written by a class of fourth year Anthropology students at McMaster University, the story of tuberculosis in Hamilton a century ago illuminates a disease that is re-emerging today as an equally devastating threat to human health worldwide.</p>