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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    in the practice of some military surgeons, no small degree of caprice and irregularity; and conceiving that a simple and definite procedure is attainable, I have been induced to address a few observations on the subject to you, who have given ample proof of the advantage of introduc- ing system into the department over which you preside, and who, by your influence, may be ena- bled to establish rules for the treatment of feigned diseases, and thus remove the chief difficulty which belongs to the performance of a very dis- agreeable duty. It appears to me that the following objects na- turally come under consideration : 1st, the dis- eases which are most generally feigned ; 2dly, the methods which the malingerer adops to deceive the medical officer; 3dly, the best means of de- tecting the fraud, and 4thly, the most successful way of treating malingerers, and preventing the extension of their fraudulent practices in regi- ments. With a view to these objects the follow- ing queries were circulated among the staff and regimental medical officers on the Irish Establish- ment in 1823; and I have been enabled thereby to elicit a considerable variety of information from those who are practically acquainted with all the difficulties of the subject.