Henry VII was not alone. TB is thought to infect 2 million people worldwide even today. Hippocrates recognised the predilection of the disease for young adults. John Bunyan, author of The Pilgrim’s Progress, dubbed it ‘The Captain of all these men of death’, in his work The Life and Death of Mr Badman. It has also been called the Robber of Youth and the Graveyard Cough. In Homer’s epic poem The Odyssey, a description refers to ‘grievous consumption’ which took the soul from the body and caused a person to ‘lie in sickness . . . a long time wasting away.’ Phthisis is derived from the Greek,
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