The magic mountain revisited: History of the madanapalle TB sanatorium

Abstract

The sanatorium was central to tuberculosis treatment in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The long-drawn nature of treatment and the highly infectious nature of the disease made the sanatorium regimen effective and popular before antibiotics entered the scene. The sanatorium was not just a hospital, it was a social world - isolated from the rest of society it created its own definition of "community". Now it has faded from public memory. This paper revisits the sanatorium in an effort to uncover and construct the social history of tb in India. The Union Mission Tuberculosis Sanatorium in Chittoor district, Andhra Pradesh, provides the site for this historical enquiry.