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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    tary hospitals thirty years ago. As the discipline of a corps approaches perfection, instances of simulated disease ever become less and less fre- V quent. I have often been able to from a correct judgment of the discipline of a corps, after it has been a few months in garrison, merely by the conduct of the sick in hospital: there is a respect- ful, satisfied and manly demeanour even under heavy sickness or severe pain, observable in the men of some regiments, which is strongly con- trasted with the uncivil, sulky, lounging manner of those who belong to others. In some of the cavalry regiments, in some of the Highland, and other distinguished infantry battalions in which, along with a mild but exact discipline, there is a strong attachment to the service, and a remarkable esprit de corps, there is scarcely an instance of any of those disgraceful attempts to deceive the surgeon. While in regiments which have been hastily recruited, or reformed under circumstances unfavourable to progressive and complete disci- pline, the system of imposition is perfectly under- stood, as may be proved by inspecting the hospital. Among those who counterfect disease, the Irish are the most numerous and expert, the lowland Scotsman comes next to the Irish, and what he wants in address, is supplied in obstinacy. Ma- lingering seems to me least of all the vice of the English soldier. There is a kind of free masonry among soldiers, which is perhaps conducive to the harmony of the