<P> "Chopin coughs with infinite grace ." </P> <Tr> <Td>--George Sand in a letter to Madame d'Agoult </Td> </Tr> <P> It was during this century that tuberculosis was dubbed the White Plague, mal de vivre, and mal du siècle . It was seen as a "romantic disease". Suffering from tuberculosis was thought to bestow upon the sufferer heightened sensitivity . The slow progress of the disease allowed for a "good death" as sufferers could arrange their affairs . The disease began to represent spiritual purity and temporal wealth, leading many young, upper - class women to purposefully pale their skin to achieve the consumptive appearance . British poet Lord Byron wrote, "I should like to die from consumption", helping to popularize the disease as the disease of artists . George Sand doted on her phthisic lover, Frédéric Chopin, calling him her "poor melancholy angel". </P> <P> In France, at least five novels were published expressing the ideals of tuberculosis: Dumas's La Dame aux camélias, Murger's Scènes de la vie de Bohème, Hugo's Les Misérables, the Goncourt brothers' Madame Gervaisais and Germinie Lacerteux, and Rostand's L'Aiglon . The portrayals by Dumas and Murger in turn inspired operatic depictions of consumption in Verdi's La traviata and Puccini's La bohème . Even after medical knowledge of the disease had accumulated, the redemptive - spiritual perspective of the disease has remained popular (as seen in the 2001 film Moulin Rouge based in part on La traviata and the musical adaptations of Les Misérables). </P>

When was the first case of tuberculosis discovered