Elements of medical jurisprudence / By Theodric Romeyn Beck and John B. Beck.

  • Theodric Romeyn Beck
Date:
1836
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Elements of medical jurisprudence / By Theodric Romeyn Beck and John B. Beck. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    46/1024 (page 22)
    feel confident that his disease is feigned.* This mode of examination should be strictly adhered to ; since, as far as my observation has ex- tended, no complaint is more frequently urged by those who wish to avoid military duty, than near-sightedness. Ophthalmia has often been artificially excited by the application of various stimulant remedies. It is, however, detected by the rapidity of its progress. It arrives at its acme within a few hours after the application of the acrid substance. Some information may also be derived from noticing which eye is affected. A few years since, when an extensive system of deception prevailed in the British 28th regi- ment of foot, Dr. Vetch observed that the counterfeit inflammation was almost solely confined to the right eye.-]- A left-handed man would probably inflict the injury on the left eye.J No disease has been more extensively feigned than this, both in the English and French armies. Twelve per cent of the inefficient conscripts belonging to the department of the Seine, were rejected from this cause ;§ and several hundred men, in various British regi- ments, have been affected at one time. || The articles principally used have been salt, sulphate of copper, corrosive sublimate, cantharides, alum, tobacco-juice, lime, and nitric acid.«f[ Sometimes the progress of the epidemic was stopped by removing numbers, in a state of nudity, to a new ward. They could not carry these articles with them. But the most efficient remedy appears to have been the alteration of the pension regulations. They ordained that no soldier should be discharged for the loss of one eye only. Dr. Hutchison found it neces- sary, in some instances, to put on the strait waistcoat, and thus prevent the hands from doing injury. That species of blindness which originates from amaurosis, is strongly characterised by the dilated and fixed pupil. There are, however, cases in which the pupil retains some contractile power, although we know the sight to be lost. In such an instance, epispastics and setons are proper ; and, if suspicion exists, the patient should be watched, to see whether he does not avoid obstacles put in his way. If this be carefully pursued, the deceit is often detected. The fol- lowing case, however, occurred to Mahon : —A young conscript was sent to the corps blockading Luxemburg. Having passed the night at the advanced posts, he, on the next morning, declared himself blind, and was sent to the hospital. The surgeons used the most powerful remedies, and were convinced that the disease was feigned, as the pupil contracted perfectly. He assured them, however, that he could not see; thanked them for their care of him, and asked for the application of new remedies. He was sent to the superior medical officers at * Fodere, vol ii. p. 480. There was a young French surgeon in Edinburgh, in the year 181!), who was naturally short-sighted, but not sufficiently so to excuse him from military duty. He avoided the conscription, however, by habituating himself to read with a book close to his eyes.—Dunlop. f Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal, vol. iv. p. 158. t Hennen, p 405. § Scott, p. 148. || Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal, vol. xxxviii. p. 139. Scott, Cheyne, etc. (Iheyne, p. 130.