Recent histories of geriatrics suggest that early physicians contributed to the degradation of old age by labeling it a disease. This diagnosis provoked little or no interest in the “illness,” and active plans for treatment of the elderly were not developed. An analysis of the records of the Boston Almshouse Hospital indicates that, even for elite doctors, assessments of the elderly's morbidity were prompted as much by the desire for self-advancement as by the elderly's needs.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
HaberC., Beyond Sixty-Five: The Dilemma of Old Age in America's Past, Cambridge University Press, New York, 1983.
2.
GoldenJ., Review of Beyond Sixty-Five by C. Haber,Transactions and Studies, Series 5, 6:1, p. 91, 1984.
3.
Annual Report of the Pauper Institutions Department, Documents of the City of Boston, 1905, 2:29, pp. 32–33, 1906.
4.
Report of the Pauper Institutions Trustees, Documents of the City of Boston, 1902, 2:29, p. 12, 1903.
5.
Eighteenth Annual Report for the Boston Infirmary Department, Documents of the City of Boston, 1915, 2:16, p. 8, 1916.
6.
Annual Report of the Institutions Department, Documents of the City of Boston, 1925, 2:15, p. 5, 1926.
7.
Majority and Minority Reports of the Committee on Institutions Department Relative to the Investigation of the Boston Almshouse and Hospital at Long Island, Documents of the City of Boston, 1903, 4:102, pp. 5–7, 1 13, 1904.
8.
Annual Report of the Pauper Institutions Department, Documents of the City of Boston, 1907, 2:30, p. 3, 1908.
9.
Twenty-Third Annual Report of the Boston Infirmary Department, Documents of the City of Boston, 1920, 1:5, pp. 1,4–5, 1921.
10.
Annual Report of the Institutions Department, Documents of the City of Boston, .1935, 1:15, pp 11–12, 1936.
11.
Annual Report of the Pauper Institutions Department, Documents of the City of Boston, 1906, 2:29, p. 12, 1907.
12.
Annual Report of the Pauper Institutions Department, Documents of the City of Boston, 1904, 2:29, p. 15, 1905.
13.
Fifteenth Annual Report of the Boston Infirmary Department, Documents of the City of Boston, 1912, 2:17, pp. 11–12, 1913.
14.
Twenty-First Annual Report of the Boston Infirmary Department, Documents of the City of Boston, 1918, 1:5, 1919.
15.
Annual Report of the Institutions Department, Documents of the City of Boston, 1931, 2:15, p. 1, 1932.
16.
Annual Report of the Institutions Department, Documents of the City of Boston, 1921, 2:14, p. 5, 1922.
17.
Twentieth Annual Report of the Boston Infirmary Department, Documents of the City of Boston, 1917, 1:5, pp. 31–32, 1918.
18.
Report of the Pauper Institutions Trustees, Documents of the City of Boston, 1899, 2:25, p. 7, 1900.
19.
AchenbaumW. A., Old Age in the New Land, Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore, Maryland, 1978.
