Who were the first scientists who theorized that stress may preciptate illness ?

Thomas Homes and Richard Rahe in the 1960s first demosntrated that stress may precipitate illness by studying the kinds of events preceding the onset of tuberculosis. Interestingly, there were also positive life changes among these events e.g. Marriage, birth of baby. According to Himes and Rahe, it is the "change" associated with these events that generates the stress.