A letter to George Renny ... on the feigned diseases of soldiers / by John Cheyne.

Date:
1826
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A letter to George Renny ... on the feigned diseases of soldiers / by John Cheyne. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    ■4 lam persuaded that a regimental hospital, when well regulated, is more favorable than a general hospital to the detection of imposture. The knowledge which in most corps the officers, non- commissioned officers and surgeon must possess of the character, habits, and prospects of all the pri- vates of the regiment, will often lead to a dis- covery of the motives of the malingerer, and thus divert him from his object, or disconcert his scheme. It seems therefore inexpedient to en- courage the transfer of malingerers to a general hospital, unless when the regiment is going upon service, or to a remote station. When the surgeon of a regiment understands that he is not to inflict punishment unless autho- rized by the commanding officer, his observations will be made with more calmness, which is highly desirable, as, even after the most dispassionate consideration, our conclusions will sometimes be erroneous, of which I could bring forward a multi- tude of instances. Thus in the year 1804 or 1805, a soldier of the name of Smith, of the 9th foot, who complained of great uneasiness of the loins, was treated as a malingerer, and was sent to punishment drill, at which he was kept till a tumour appeared in his back, symptomatic of a lumbar abscess, of which the poor fellow died. A strong and active hussar, after many an inef- fectual effort during eight months, to rouse him from a state of listlessness and inattention to his