Royal Commission on Tuberculosis

Sir William Henry Power, the Medical Officer for London who had formulated the theory of aerial conveyance of smallpox chaired the Commission.

[5] The mandate was not limited to tuberculosis however, with its prime role being the distribution of medical research funds under the terms of the National Insurance Act 1911.

On 24 April 1890, Lees Knowles, then parliamentary secretary to Charles Ritchie, President of the Local Government Board, brought a motion before the House of Commons and was subsequently appointed to formulate the commission.

[6] In 1890 the German physician and microbiologist Robert Koch developed tuberculin, a purified protein derivative of the bacteria.

[8] and by 1891 the British Medical Journal was reporting a new perspective of inquiry: careful examination into the meat and milk inspection; experimental research; and collection of statistics regarding the degree of infectivity of the products of tuberculous animals.

La Miseria by Cristóbal Rojas (1886). Rojas had tuberculosis when he painted this. Here he depicts the social aspect of the disease, and its relation with living conditions at the close of the 19th century.