‘Outlander’: What is Consumption? The Disease Claire Can’t Cure

Outlander Season 7 Episode 9 “Unfinished Business” introduces a challenge not even Claire Fraser (Caitriona Balfe) can overcome. It’s an obvious cause for heartache, made worse for the characters on the Starz show because Claire can’t quite explain why she’s so powerless to help.

**Spoilers for Outlander Season 7 Episode 9 “Unfinished Business,” now streaming on Starz**

In Outlander Season 7 Episode 9 “Unfinished Business,” Jamie (Sam Heughan) and Claire return to Scotland and soon learn that a beloved character has consumption. Even though Claire has advanced medical knowledge from the 20th century, she admits she can’t do anything to stop the progression of the fatal disease.

Okay, but what is consumption anyway? Why is consumption such a deadly disease? Who else in history has died of consumption? And why does the usually indefatigable Claire give up so easily?

Here’s everything you need to know about consumption, the disease introduced in Outlander Season 7 Episode 9 “Unfinished Business.”

Outlander: What is Consumption?

Consumption is the historic nickname for tuberculosis, an illness that primarily affects the lungs. While you can pick up tuberculosis and never show any sign of symptoms, the latent form of the disease can blow up into the active form. Active Tuberculosis shows itself in fever, night sweats, weight loss, and most famously, in bloody mucus.

In the early 20th century, doctors and groups like the American Lung Association took action to drastically reduce the then omnipresent spread of the illness. Today there are vaccines you can take to prevent catching tuberculosis and aggressive antibiotic treatments. It’s all but a non-issue for most modern day Americans, although it remains a persistent problem for other parts of the world.

Consumption is often associated with artists, poets, and muses of the late Romantic and Victorian eras. Because it was a leading cause of death in the 19th century, many famous figures died from consumption. The poet John Keats and Wuthering Heights novelist Emily Brontë both died of complications with the illness. Characters like Mimi in the opera La Bohéme and even Satine in Baz Luhrman’s Moulin Rouge! also perished of consumption.

In a weird twist, poets and artists romanticized consumption because it left the ill looking especially pale, but with rosy cheeks and lips. These were the beauty standards of the 19th century, yes, but the sickness also claimed the lives of many young men and women. So basically, if you were a young woman dying of consumption, you might be considered especially attractive thanks to your symptoms. That’s clearly not what’s happening in Outlander, but there you go!

Claire might know that her 20th century peers have ways to combat consumption, but they are wholly unavailable to her in 18th century Scotland. Consumption would still be a death sentence in the world of Outlander.