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In the book "The Plague and I" Betty MacDonald hilariously describes her ordeal in the Pines, a hospital just outside Seattle that was set up as an asylum for patients with tuberculosis. That was in the 1930's. Indeed in the days before antibiotics, patients had complete bed rest--not even talking for years on end. In the summer if they were lucky, and sometimes in winter if they were not, some patients were bedded outside.
I believe they used to prescribe fresh air for TB patients, in the days before antibiotics.
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