Hospitals, Housing, and Tuberculosis in Glasgow, 1911–51

Abstract

There has been a good deal of recent debate concerning the contributions of rising living standards and direct social intervention to the demographic growth of the last two centuries, much of it focusing on the role played by respiratory TB. In this case study of the social history of TB in Glasgow it will be argued that the appalling levels of overcrowding present in the city acted as a brake on the downward trend of mortality in the interwar years. As such it is suggested that the parts played by rising living standards and increased levels of food consumption have been overstated in recent accounts of the retreat of this disease. It will further be argued that the provision of expensive and wholly ineffective sanatorium treatment diverted attention and, more importantly, resources, away from the more radical prescriptions which may have precipitated the decline of the greatest killer of young people this century.

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