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.

    27/62 (page 27)
    man were put together, and not without advan- tage, as during the night, hearing upon an out- post is often of more importance than sight. Among the most troublesome malingerers are those who affect to have lost the use of the sphincters. These men are insufferable in an hospital, and would seem to have a pleasure in their abominations. When a patient alleges that he cannot retain the contents of the bowels the sphincter ani ought to be examined, and if it con- tracts upon the finger, opium with solid food must be prescribed, and a watch set over the indivdual; if he expel solid excrement in bed, he will be a fit subject for a court martial. I present the follow- ing case rather as a portrait of one of the aban- doned creatures I allude to, than to serve as a pre- cedent to the medical officer for dealing with such men. The practice however appears to have been abundantly successful. A man who pretended to labour under sciatica, and to have lost the use of the lower extremities, was admitted into the general hospital at Lisburn, where he lay for eleven months. After the em- ployment of the most approved means without the slightest advantage, it was discovered that he was a man of an infamous character; he had become most offensive in hospital from a habit of dis- charging his excrement in bed. Upon consultation the medical attendants came to the conclusion that this man was a malingerer, and they resolved c 2