CHAPTER VIII.MALINGERING, OR SIMULATION OF DISEASES.
Former Prevalence of Malingering in the Army; and the Motives for it—Decline of the Practice—Where most Prevalent—The means of Simulation reduced to a System—Cases of simulated Ophthalmia in the 50th Regiment—The Deception wonderfully kept up by many Malingerers—Means of Detection—Simulated Paralysis—Impudent Triumph manifested by Malingerers—Curious cases of Hollidge—Gutta Serena, and Nyctalopia counterfeited—Blind Soldiers employed in Egypt—Cure, by actual cautery, of a Malingerer—Simulation of Consumption and other Diseases—Feigned Deafness—Detection of a Man who simulated Deafness—Instances of Self-mutilation committed by Soldiers—Simulation of Death.
A veryserious evil has existed in the army, resulting from a very general practice of idle and dissolute soldiers in barracks, and even in more active service, feigning diseases and disabilities; for the purpose of either escaping duty, or in the hopes of being altogether discharged from the service, and procuring a pension. This imposture has been termed Malingering, or the simulation of diseases, and the unsuccessful or suspected impostors have been usually called Malingerers. In vulgar English, the trick is called Shamming Abram.
Remarkable ingenuity, and a very considerable knowledge of the powers and effects of medicinal agents, have been shown by those who,à priori, would not be suspected of such information: and the pertinacity shownby the impostors, when the object was to procure their discharge, has been often wonderful.
The reasons which call for, or privilege a soldier to expect, his discharge, are chronic and incurable rather than acute diseases. It is natural, therefore, to find the malingerers most expert in simulating the former, though, at the same time, the more acute diseases have not been less faithfully represented, when the object in view was only a temporary evasion of duty.
This practice has prevailed to a greater or less extent at different periods of our medical-military history; and it is gratifying to learn, from authentic sources, that in the present period of highly improved discipline in the British army, there are not probably two malingerers for ten who were found in the military hospitals thirty or forty years since. It also occurs more or less according to the manner of forming a regiment. In some of the cavalry regiments, and 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 remarkableesprit du corps, there is scarcely an instance of any of those disgraceful attempts to deceive the surgeon; while in regiments which have been hastily recruited, and under circumstances unfavourable to progressive and complete discipline, the system of imposition is perfectly understood. Among those who counterfeit diseases, it has been observed that the Irish are the most numerous, the Scotsmen less so, but malingering seems least of all the vice of English soldiers.
There appears to be a species of free-masonry among soldiers, and thus these methods of imposture have been systematized, and handed down for the common benefit. A case occurred of a man having a rupture, which on inspection was found to be artificially formed from some written directions, “How to make a rupture,” which were produced. The man was discharged by his commandingofficer, but the discharge not being backed by the surgeon’s recommendatory certificate, he lost his pension; the commanding officer after his return from Corunna met this man perfectly well, following the laborious occupation of a porter.
In the year 1804, the great increase of ophthalmia in the 50th regiment, and the reported detection of frauds in other regiments, led to a suspicion in the mind of the surgeon of that corps, and a consequent investigation, by which a regular correspondence was detected between the men under medical treatment and their parents or friends. Those suffering from ophthalmia, within the walls of the hospital, requested that those without would forward to them corrosive sublimate, lime, and blue-stone; and by the application of these acrid substances to their eyes, they hoped to get them into such a state of disease, as would enable them to procure their discharge, with a pension. And they mentioned the names of men who had been successful by similar means. Proofs of guilt having been established, the delinquents were tried by a court-martial, convicted, and punished.
It is hardly possible to believe, that men would endure not only the inconvenience of a severe ophthalmia, than which, perhaps, nothing is more painful, but would even risk the total loss of sight, for the uncertain prospect of a trifling pension, and with the conviction, that even if they gained it, they reduced themselves to a helpless dependence on others through life. But it is nevertheless certain, that whole wards have been filled with soldiers labouring under this artificially excited disease; this inflammation of the eye having been produced, and maintained, by quicklime, strong infusions of tobacco, Spanish flies, nitrate of silver, and other metallic salts. The inflammation thus caused is most painful, yet it has been kept up under every privation which can make life miserable.
Wonderful indeed is the obstinacy some malingerersevince; night and day, they will remain, with the endurance of a fakir, in positions most irksome, for weeks and months; nay, many men for the same period have, with surprising resolution and recollection, sat and walked with their bodies bent double, without forgetting for one moment the character of their assumed infirmity.
These impostors are most easily discovered by a retaliating deception on the part of the surgeon; he should conceal his suspicions, and appear to give credit to all that is related to him of the history of the disease, and propose some sort of treatment accordingly.
The nervous disorders that are simulated are such as to require a constant and unceasing watchfulness on the part of the impostor, lest he should betray himself.
Paralysis of one arm was feigned, with great perseverance and consistency, for months; the soldier pretending that he had fallen asleep in the open air, and awoke with his arm benumbed and powerless. This farce he kept up with such boldness, that, being suspected, a court-martial was held on him, and he was even tied up to the halberts to be punished; but the commanding officer thought the evidence not sufficiently convincing. Having, however, subsequently undergone very severe treatment, and there being no prospect of a pension, he at last gave in.
The unprincipled obstinacy of some individuals even triumphs openly in the success of their imposture. A trooper in the 12th pretended that he had lost the use of his right arm; and, after resisting for a great length of time severe hospital discipline, he procured his discharge. When he was leaving the regiment, and fairly on the top of the coach, at starting, he waved his paralytic arm in triumph, and cheered at the success of his plan. Another soldier, who pretended that he had lost the use of his lower extremities, was reported unfit for service, and was discharged. When his discharge was obtained, he caused himself, on a field day, to be taken in a cart to the Phœnixpark, and in front of the regiment, drawn up in a line, he had the cart driven under a tree; he then leaped out of the cart, springing up three times, insulted the regiment, and scampered off at full speed.
A third soldier, of the name of Hollidge, pretending to be deaf and dumb after an attack of fever, never for one moment forgot his assumed character, till his purpose was attained. Being useful as a tailor, he was kept for five or six years subsequent to this pretended calamity, and carried on all communication by writing. On one occasion, whilst practising firing with blank cartridge, an awkward recruit shot Hollidge in the ear, who expressed pain and consternation by a variety of contortions, but never spoke. Not having been heard to articulate for five years, he was at last discharged; he then recovered the use of speech, and a vacancy occurring shortly after, he offered himself to fill the situation, namely, as master tailor to the regiment.
That species of blindness, thus feelingly described by Milton,
“So thick adrop serenehath quenched these orbs,”
“So thick adrop serenehath quenched these orbs,”
“So thick adrop serenehath quenched these orbs,”
“So thick adrop serenehath quenched these orbs,”
and which is that in which no manifest alteration takes place in the eye, has been produced by the application of belladonna. Nyctalopia, or night blindness, was frequently feigned in Egypt, and nearly half of a corps were, or pretended to be, afflicted with it: as the troops were employed in digging and throwing up fortifications, this state of vision was found of not so much consequence. In transporting the earth, a blind man was joined to, and followed by, one who could see; and when the sentries were doubled, a blind man and one that could see were put together, and not perhaps without advantage, as, during the night, hearing, upon an outpost, is often of more importance than sight.
One unprincipled wretch, in an hospital, pretending to be afflicted with a hopeless complaint, which was a subjectof offence to the whole ward, being detected, it was determined to apply the actual cautery. On the first application of the red-hot spatula, this fellow, who for eleven months had lost the use of his lower limbs, gave the man who held his leg so violent a kick, that he threw him down, and instantly exclaimed that he was shamming, and would do his duty if released; but the surgeon declared that he would apply the iron to the other hip, on which he roared out that he had been shamming to get his discharge. To the amusement of all around, he walked to his bed; and when the burned parts were healed, he returned to his duty.
Spitting of blood and consumption are rather favourite diseases with soldiers who seek their discharge from the service through imposture; yet an acute physician may easily detect the imposition. Palpitation and violent action of the heart the impostors know how to produce by the juice of hellebore; vomiting by secret pressure on the stomach; tympany, or distention of the body by air, is produced by swallowing, on philosophical and chemical principles, chalk and vinegar.
The acute diseases have many symptoms which are easily simulated, but as easily detected. The appearance of the white tongue is created by rubbing it with chalk, or whitening from the wall; but washing the mouth with water at once proves the deceit. Dr. Hennen, in his Military Surgery, says, “Profligates have, to my knowledge, boasted that they have often received indulgences from the medical officers in consequence of a supposed febrile attack, by presenting themselves after a night’s debauch, which they had purposely protracted, to aid the deception. Febrile symptoms are also produced by swallowing tobacco-juice. One man, if unwilling to be cured secundum artem, was at least anxious to enumerate his symptoms in an orthodox manner, for he had purloined some pages from Zimmerman’s Treatise on Dysentery, (the disease he had thought proper to simulate,) from one of the medicalofficers; and from which he was daily in the habit of recounting a change of symptoms. Stoical indifference to their frequently painful imposture and hardihood in maintaining its character, are the necessary qualifications of malingerers, who have frequently evinced a constancy and fortitude under severe pain and privations worthy of a better cause.”
A patient permitted all the preparatory measures for amputation before he thought proper to relax his knee-joint; and another suffered himself to be almost drowned in a deep lake, into which he was plunged from a boat, before he stretched out his arm to save himself by swimming, an exercise in which he was known to excel.
Those who affect deafness, are frequently caught in a snare by opening the conversation with them in a very high tone of voice, but gradually sinking it to its usual compass; when, thrown off his guard, the impostor will reply to such questions as are put to him. A recruit, unwilling to go to the East Indies, feigned deafness; he was admitted into the hospital, and put on spoon-diet; for nine days no notice was taken of him. On the tenth the physician, having made signs of inquiry to him, asked the hospital sergeant what diet he was on? the sergeant answered, “Spoon-diet.” The physician, affecting to be angry, said, “Are you not ashamed of yourself, to have kept this man so long on spoon-meat? the poor fellow is nearly starved; let him have a beef-steak and a pint of porter.” Murphy could contain himself no longer; he completely forgot his assumed defect, and, with a face full of gratitude, cried, “God bless your honour! you are the best gentleman I have seen for many a day.”
During the insurrection in the Kandian country, in 1818, a private belonging to the 19th regiment was sentry at a post, and was occasionally fired at by the enemy from the neighbouring jungle. Availing himself of what appeared a favourable opportunity for getting invalided and sent home, he placed the muzzle of his musket closeto the inside of his left leg, and discharging the piece, he blew away nearly the whole of his calf. He asserted, to those who came to his assistance, that the wound had proceeded from a shot of the enemy’s from the jungle; but the traces of gunpowder found in the leg, told a different tale, as well as his musket, which was recently discharged.
A sergeant in the 62d regiment purchased a pistol, and hired a person to shoot him through the arm; hoping, by these means, to make it appear that he had been fired at by one disaffected to the military, and that he should be discharged with a large pension. In this, however, he was disappointed.
Even death itself has been simulated. When some officers, in India, were breakfasting in the commander’s tent, the body of a native, said to have been murdered by the sepoys, was brought in and laid down. The crime could not be brought home to any one of them, yet there was the body. A suspicion, however, crossed the adjutant’s mind, and, having the kettle in his hand, a thought struck him that he would pour a little boiling water on the body; he did so; upon which the murdered remains started up, and scampered off.