ABSTRACT
In many countries, special institutional provision is made for people who are expected to live for some time while dying slowly. The typical patient in these institutions or on these wards has one or more known chronic diseases. Except perhaps in private nursing homes for wealthy patients, these establishments for the hopelessly old, sick, and dying tend to have a low ratio of personnel per patient. Medical and custodial management of the dying patient is one thing, but what about the management of the patient's day-in, day-out behavior during his lingering dying? In America, tuberculosis used to be a dreaded, often fatal, disease. Nowadays, few Americans die in hospitals from tuberculosis; most patients eventually leave for home. The probability of at least one rehearsal is enhanced because tubercular dying usually is a slow process; the dying patient has had ample time in which to observe the last stages of another patient's dying trajectory.
