ABSTRACT
Cancer in the breast caused formidable emotional turmoil in persons who were suspected to have it or were diagnosed with it, and it was frightful to everyone. It may be safe to assert that the fear of breast cancer was a disease in itself: consumptive, destructive, indeed like a worm which ate the body and its energy, and left the patient desperate. Breast cancer was, perhaps surprisingly, among the most feared diseases in the premodern world, and rightfully so: treatments against cancer were horrid and if they failed, dying of the disease was considered tortuous, long-lasting, and unspeakably painful. The case of Margaret Baxter shows that the fear of cancer could rise to such heights that it was considered able to make a person ill. In Britain Queen Caroline similarly apparently suffered from the fear of breast cancer. Cancer was always met with fear, and it did have a great impact in decisions about treatments.
