Hello, well time etc could vary, the main factor was how ell the patient was fed, what conditions they lived in etc.
It also seemed to go slower in older people, faster in the young when it was often called "Galloping Consumption".
It is an airborne infection so just breathing the same air as a victim could be enough.
The exhaled bacilli would be in the exhaled air from the infected lungs.
A well fed person, living in warm dry conditirons, aired bed etc with access to fresh air would have a better chance than a poorly fed person housed in damp slum conditions with no access to clean air, sharing a bed with siblings and no open bedroom windows because of the cold in a damp, poorly heated house.
Very often they died from bleeding from their lungs called --can`t bring it to mind--coming up through the mouth. Very distressing to say the
.
The coughed up sputum is highly infectious, loaded with the tubercle germs
Untreated milk(not TT tested) can carry it but then it is usually found in glands or bones.
Strangely, many composers and artists had it and there does seem to be a very productive stage just before the final great struggle . Also people have heightened senses and are therefore very
romantic even promiscuous, Chopin was a classic example of great works just before death.He was so ill at the villa he shared with George Sands on Majorca(or Minorca)it was so damp.
The patients got lovely skin, beautifully soft and so pink flushed , bright eyes and were very attractive so that with heightened senses -- well--use your imagination.
A very tragic disease.
Sanitoria where the patients were exposed to hours and hours of fresh air whatever the weather ,under verandaswere the only real help but then ith I think the advent of streptomycin things got better.
.I am willing to be corrected on this.
Hope this helps.You may get better details from other RootsChatters.Viktoria.