Introduction

Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. CONTENTS vii
3. Acknowledgments ix
4. Introduction 1
5. 1. “What Are His Chances, Doctor?” The Semantics of Incurability in the Nineteenth Century 15
6. 2. Reinventing Hope in the Late Nineteenth Century 37
7. 3. “I Told You So”: The Rhyme and Reason of Chronic Disease 58
8. 4. Death, Decay, and the Genesis of Shame 70
9. 5. Medical Attitudes toward the Care of Incurables 90
10. 6. Medical Strategies, Social Conventions, and Palliative Medicine 113
11. 7. Ecce Homo: Opiates, Suffering, and the Art of Palliation 136
12. 8. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Incurability and the Quest for Goodness 159
13. 9. The Fate of the Incurably Ill between the Two Revolutions, 1789–1848 175
14. 10. Caught between Initiative and Inertia: Responses to the Incurably Ill from 1845 to 1905 197
15. Conclusion 216
16. Notes 223
17. Select Bibliography 277
18. Index 289
19. ABOUT THE AUTHOR 297