Tuberculosis Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! === Names === Tuberculosis has been known by many names from the technical to the familiar.<ref name=Lawlor/> {{Lang|grc-latn|Phthisis}} ({{Lang|grc|Φθισις}}) is a Greek word for consumption, an old term for pulmonary tuberculosis;<ref name=Cha1998/> around 460 BCE, [[Hippocrates]] described phthisis as a disease of dry seasons.<ref>{{cite web |title=Hippocrates 3.16 Classics, MIT |url=http://classics.mit.edu/Hippocrates/aphorisms.mb.txt |access-date=15 December 2015 |url-status=unfit |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050211173218/http://classics.mit.edu/Hippocrates/aphorisms.mb.txt |archive-date=11 February 2005}}</ref> The abbreviation ''TB'' is short for ''tubercle [[Bacillus (shape)|bacillus]]''. ''Consumption'' was the most common nineteenth century English word for the disease, and was also in use well into the twentieth century. The Latin root {{Lang|la|con}} meaning 'completely' is linked to {{Lang|la|sumere}} meaning 'to take up from under'.<ref>{{cite book| vauthors = Caldwell M |title=The Last Crusade|date=1988|publisher=Macmillan|location=New York|isbn=978-0-689-11810-4|page=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780689118104/page/21 21]|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780689118104/page/21}}</ref> In ''[[The Life and Death of Mr Badman]]'' by [[John Bunyan]], the author calls consumption "the captain of all these men of death."<ref>{{cite book| vauthors = Bunyan J |date=1808 |title=The Life and Death of Mr. Badman|url=https://archive.org/details/lifeanddeathmrb01bunygoog |quote=captain. |page=[https://archive.org/details/lifeanddeathmrb01bunygoog/page/n238 244] |location=London |publisher=W. Nicholson |via=Internet Archive |access-date=28 September 2016}}</ref> "Great white plague" has also been used.<ref name=Lawlor/> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page