Research Training Program

Paige Hamilton
University of Notre Dame
Notre Dame, Indiana

Dave Hunt, Ph.D.
Supervising Scientist
Department of Anthropology

"RTP is more than a summer internship… it's total immersion into the paradise for scientific learning and research "

The White Plague:
Skeletal Evidence of Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis, once popularly called the White Plague, remains a leading cause of death in the world today. According to estimates by the World Health Organization, tuberculosis resulted in 1.7 million deaths in 2004 alone. The tuberculosis germs, known as bacilli, are released into the air when infected people cough, sneeze, or even talk, causing it to be highly contagious. Tuberculosis was a much larger problem for the United States in the early decades of the twentieth century, especially before the invention and prevalent use of antibiotics. The Robert J. Terry Anatomical Skeletal Collection at the National Museum of Natural History is a collection of 1,728 human remains assembled from the St. Louis area during the first half of the 1900's. One hundred and fifty individuals randomly selected from this collection were examined for skeletal evidence of tuberculosis on the ribs and spine. Skeletal evidence was defined as lesions, bone growth or destruction, which are common effects of infection. Fifty of the individuals studied were reported to have died from pulmonary tuberculosis, fifty from non-specific tuberculosis, and fifty from a non-TB disease. Two-thirds of the individuals reported to have died from tuberculosis showed bone growth and destruction on the ribs. At the same time, less than one-tenth of those people who died from a non-TB disease showed bone lesions on both the spine and ribs. The results from this research support previous studies that lesions on the spine and ribs can help skeletal biologists distinguish the cause of death in skeletal remains. Understanding the effects of tuberculosis on the skeleton is critical to identifying the prevalence of the disease in historic populations and for tracing the course of TB through human history.

This research was supported by a grant from the
University of Notre Dame NMNH Internship Program in Anthropology

Letter of gratitude