Building Resistance: Children, Tuberculosis, and the Toronto Sanatorium

In 1882, Robert Koch identified tuberculosis as an infectious bacterial disease. In the sixty years between this revelation and the discovery of an antibiotic treatment, streptomycin, the disease was widespread in Canada, often infecting children within their family homes. Soon, public concerns led to the establishment of hospitals that specialized in the treatment of tuberculosis, including the Toronto sanatorium, which opened in 1904 on the outskirts of the city.

Situated in the era before...