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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    of speech. This man was left at the depot, and be- ing a useful man as a tailor, he was retained in the regiment for five years, all the while communica- ting with others in writing. On one occasion, while practising firing with blank cartridge, an awkward recruit, whose carbine remained cocked, shot Holledge in the ear, who expressed pain and con- sternation by a variety of motions and contortions, but never spoke. This man, who had not been heard to articulate one word for five years was at last discharged. After his discharge was obtained, he recovered the use of his speech and, a vacancy occurring, offered himself as master tailor to the regiment. The practice of this species of fraud rests upon a vulgar error. Persons who are born deaf, are said to be deaf and dumb, and hence it is sup- posed by the unreflecting, that the loss of the sense of hearing necessarily draws along with it the loss of the faculty of speech. The noise of artillery is by no means an un- common cause of deafness ; many artillery officers havethuslost theirhearing. Deafness mayalsoarise from a deep-seated abscess. Mr.Elkington, surgeon to the Royals, describes a case of deafness which occurred to a recruit a few days after his enlist- ment, which was supposed to be feigned, but which proved to be the effect of a deep seated collection of matter in the ear. Let us moreover recollect, that along with a healthy aspect of the membrana c