It is also worth pointing out that a bacterial disease doesn’t make you smarter or more possessed of a “Vivacity of Mind.” Not only were those suffering from tuberculosis supposedly beautiful and brilliant; according to Christian tradition they were also godly and good. That belief was mostly due to the association of plumpness with worldly appetites of many kinds. If you were as bony as someone with consumption, you must have been depriving yourself in this world to feast with Jesus in the next.18
