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At a time when we are all locked down in our homes, Sally Shuttleworth and Erica Charters take a look, both serious and light-hearted, at the treatment of health and disease in the past, and particularly the period from the eighteenth to nineteenth centuries when invalids were actively encouraged to travel. The discussion will explore the creation of the health resort, and what life was like for invalids living in towns devoted to the sick. We will look at a range of diseases, both real and imagined, from tuberculosis and professional burnout to clergyman’s throat. We will also consider what happened in resorts when, in the 1880s, it was discovered that tuberculosis was infectious. How did hotels respond to the fact that invalids and non-invalids were happily eating and socializing together?
