Literary notes about consumption (AI summary)
The word "consumption" wields a remarkable duality in literature, functioning both as a term for a deadly disease and as a marker of economic or social use. In its medical sense, it frequently refers to the debilitating illness—later understood as tuberculosis—that claimed lives with a slow, relentless decay, as noted in poignant references where characters succumb to it ([1], [2], [3], [4]). At the same time, "consumption" is deployed to discuss the use and depletion of resources, whether considering the trade of goods, national import-export balances, or the habitual use of items like coffee and tea ([5], [6], [7], [8]). This layered usage not only enriches the narrative by intertwining mortality with economic and cultural realities but also reflects the multifaceted challenges faced by societies and individuals alike ([9], [10], [11], [12]).
- Then, laying his hand piteously on my shoulder, sighed, "he died of consumption at Sing-Sing.
— from The Piazza Tales by Herman Melville - Two or three are lying very low with consumption, cannot recover; some with old wounds; one with both feet frozen off,
— from Complete Prose Works by Walt Whitman - His death caused a terrible remorse in me for my cruelty—though I hope he died of consumption and not of me entirely.
— from Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy - But the doctor says missis must go: he says she’s been in a consumption these many months.
— from Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë - The trade of the merchant-exporter of corn for foreign consumption, certainly does not contribute directly to the plentiful supply of the home market.
— from An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith - What is one of the main reasons for the consumption of coffee?
— from All About Coffee by William H. Ukers - From a per capita consumption of four gallons in 1850, it has steadily risen to nearly twenty-five gallons in 1913.
— from Introduction to the Science of Sociology by E. W. Burgess and Robert Ezra Park - When the diminution of revenue is the effect of the diminution of consumption, there can be but one remedy, and that is the lowering of the tax.
— from An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith - It is a signal advantage of taxes on articles of consumption, that they contain in their own nature a security against excess.
— from The Federalist Papers by Alexander Hamilton and John Jay and James Madison - Every new loan required new taxes to be imposed; new taxes must add to the price of our manufactures, and lessen their consumption among foreigners .
— from The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 01 (of 12) by Edmund Burke - The produce of every part of the country must be proportioned to the consumption of the neighbourhood.
— from An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith - Conspicuous consumption of valuable goods is a means of reputability to the gentleman of leisure.
— from The Theory of the Leisure Class by Thorstein Veblen
