However, it would still be several decades before a cure was found.Ĭonstruction of what now stands as Waverly Hills Tuberculosis Sanatorium in Louisville, Kentucky began March of 1924. At the end of the 19th century, Robert Koch found the microorganism Mycobacterium Tuberculosis was responsible for the disease, and this gave him a substantial enemy to fight. During all of this, TB claimed victims by the millions. Patients were told to rest or to exercise, to eat or to abstain from food, to travel to the mountains or to live underground. Over the years the treatments would change and could vary from country to country.

It was realized as far back as the 16th century that the disease was contagious, but besides blood letting of the patients or seeking an audience with the king to have him lay on healing hands, there was not much hope for sufferers. Many treatment regimens included fresh milk: human, goat, or camel. Physicians in Rome recommended bathing in human urine, eating wolf livers, and drinking elephant blood. For centuries health practitioners were unable to help patients afflicted with tuberculosis. During some periods of history TB may have lessened its grip but it never entirely let go. Evidence of TB has been found in the spines of Egyptian mummies and it is known that the disease was common in both ancient Greece and Imperial Rome. It seems that tuberculosis or TB (also known as Consumption) has always been with the human race. During the first part of the Twentieth Century, it was the leading cause of death in the United States, and in 1900 Louisville, Kentucky had the highest death rate from tuberculosis in the country. This bacterium can attack any part of the body, but most usually attacks the lungs. Unfortunately, this also made it ripe for the tuberculosis bacteria. Louisville suffered through floods, malarial-type infections, and the New Madrid earthquakes of 1811-1812. In 1900, Louisville was still among the nation's twenty largest cities, twice as large as Los Angeles and Atlanta, and four times bigger than Dallas or Houston.Īlthough the Ohio River that the city sits on was a necessity for the growth of the city, it also was a source of problems. When the twentieth century began, Louisville's population had passed the 200,000 mark, a doubling in a single generation. It wasn't until 1828 when the population reached 10,000 that it got around to its official incorporation as a city. Named for King Louis XVI of France in gratitude for French aid in the Revolution, Louisville grew slowly at first. Kentucky achieved statehood in 1792 when it became the first western star on the American Flag. At this time, the land was still part of the colony of Virginia, and it was Virginia Governor Thomas Jefferson who signed the first Louisville town charter in 1780. Louisville, Kentucky, began its life as a city in May of 1778.

Kentucky sanitarium