Analysis: Did Mary Ann Bugg have tuberculosis?
No, Mary Ann did not have tuberculosis. Not according to the records, anyway. This claim is the result of a compounding error.
Most researchers have concluded – inaccurately – that Mary Ann Bugg was the woman named Louisa Mason who died in 1867 at Mrs Bradford’s house on the Goulburn River near Denman. The report of Louisa Mason’s inquest stated that she died of “Inflammation of the lungs”. Newspaper reports added that this was the result of “exposure”.
A Thunderbolt researcher who believed that Louisa Mason was Mary Ann Bugg evidently concluded that “inflammation of the lungs” was the phrase used at that time to describe tuberculosis. This is incorrect. The most common references to tuberculosis at that time were consumption and phthisis. What was then called “inflammation of the lungs” was what we now call pneumonia. Moreover, pneumonia is a condition that can readily result from exposure.
But this is all irrelevant, anyway, because the woman who died at the Goulburn River in 1867 was not Mary Ann Bugg but Louisa Mason, a different woman entirely (see Who was Louisa Mason?).
For further information and source-references see: Did Mary Ann Bugg die in 1867?
Most researchers have concluded – inaccurately – that Mary Ann Bugg was the woman named Louisa Mason who died in 1867 at Mrs Bradford’s house on the Goulburn River near Denman. The report of Louisa Mason’s inquest stated that she died of “Inflammation of the lungs”. Newspaper reports added that this was the result of “exposure”.
A Thunderbolt researcher who believed that Louisa Mason was Mary Ann Bugg evidently concluded that “inflammation of the lungs” was the phrase used at that time to describe tuberculosis. This is incorrect. The most common references to tuberculosis at that time were consumption and phthisis. What was then called “inflammation of the lungs” was what we now call pneumonia. Moreover, pneumonia is a condition that can readily result from exposure.
But this is all irrelevant, anyway, because the woman who died at the Goulburn River in 1867 was not Mary Ann Bugg but Louisa Mason, a different woman entirely (see Who was Louisa Mason?).
For further information and source-references see: Did Mary Ann Bugg die in 1867?