Modern theory of tuberculosis: culturomic analysis of its historical origin in Europe and North America.

INTRODUCTION

An historical account of the modern theory of tuberculosis (TB) using a culturomic analysis has not been studied.

OBJECTIVE

To analyze, using culturomic methods, the history of our modern understanding of TB as a unitary disease.

METHODS

A culturomic analysis of millions of digitized texts was undertaken to quantify 200-year trends in usage of the modern term and pre-modern terms , , and , and to correlate these trends with significant historical events.

RESULTS

Our understanding of TB originated with Laënnec in Paris, who proposed that the seemingly disparate wasting conditions , , and were each related to the same post-mortem anatomical sign: the tubercle. The term was coined by Schonlein in 1829, but the term's usage remained uncommon until Villemin's 1865 discovery that TB was a communicable disease, Koch's 1882 discovery of , and Pasteur's 1884 discovery of a vaccine against another communicable disease, smallpox.

CONCLUSION

Our modern understanding of TB as a unitary disease was embraced slowly. Acceptance required new terminology describing the idea, scientific confirmation that TB is an infectious disease, and evidence suggesting that it might be prevented. An innovative idea is not enough to induce widespread acceptance. The study illustrates how culturomic methods can be used to study the adoption and diffusion of an innovation, in this case the modern theory of TB.