ABSTRACT
The first chapter explores how tuberculosis was useful as a lens for understanding colonial governance and society in Singapore in the second half of the nineteenth century. In a belated and limited way, the disease began to receive the attention of the government following the transfer of the Straits Settlements to the Colonial Office in Britain in 1867. Although still regarded as less important than other major illnesses, tuberculosis was viewed as a disease of paupers. Part of its history could thus be traced through the developments and statistics of the Tan Tock Seng Hospital, the Chinese pauper hospital. Yet, as the chapter points out, this history was incomplete, as many tuberculosis sufferers avoided being treated at the hospital and continued to live (and die) in the community. This state of affairs only began to change in the 1890s, when the colonial and municipal governments grew increasingly worried about the insanitary condition of the town of Singapore.
