ABSTRACT
This chapter foregrounds the influence of age and ill-health in casting people as dependent subjects rather than autonomous and participating citizens. In late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, tuberculosis is one of the major killers among infectious diseases and one of the leading threats to health. The chapter concentrates first on the history of one of the institutions, Apelviken, paying attention to its founding principles. It explores both the treatment options and the lived experiences within such institutions. There is some evidence of shared endeavour between the promoters of the sanatorium project, the staff and caregivers, parents who sent their children as patients and even the children themselves. Apelviken was not a medical establishment. It embodied the political radicalism of the late-nineteenth-century with its fight to improve living conditions through a combination of individual initiatives and government intervention. This combination can be interpreted as a consequence of the 'social help state', which in Seip's socio-political model preceded the 'welfare' state.
