A probationary essay on feigned and factitious diseases, chiefly on soldiers and seamen : submitted, by authority of the President and his council, to the examination of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, when candidate for admission into their body, in conformity to their regulations respecting the admission of ordinary fellows / By Hector Gavin, M.D. Licentiate for the Royal College of Surgeons in Edinburgh, formerly President of the Hunterian Medical Society, member of the Royal Medical Society, Edinburgh.

  • Gavin, Hector.
Date:
1838
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A probationary essay on feigned and factitious diseases, chiefly on soldiers and seamen : submitted, by authority of the President and his council, to the examination of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, when candidate for admission into their body, in conformity to their regulations respecting the admission of ordinary fellows / By Hector Gavin, M.D. Licentiate for the Royal College of Surgeons in Edinburgh, formerly President of the Hunterian Medical Society, member of the Royal Medical Society, Edinburgh. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    ever evidence of health may be inferred from a plump frame and muscular limbs. To this re- commendation I would add, that the inspections should be conducted in private; for it has been remarked by those most experienced in these subjects, that the number of spectators always increases the obstinacy of the impostor. It is frequently useful to depart from the ordi- nary mode of examination in doubtful cases, pre- concerted plans being thereby entirely disconcerted, and the impostor puzzled. Violent measures of any kind, and violent language, are rarely if ever advisable or effectual, even in the army or navy, where patients are under the control of strict discipline: they more frequently do harm, as the impostor knows well that this mode of inducing him to abandon a scheme of fraud cannot last long. Percy and Laurent likewise state, that violent means of detecting imposture ought to be rejected as impolitic, illegal, cruel, and dangerous, as at the best they may be inefficacious and deceit- ful, and may only furnish contradictory results. That severe pain of the body will not influence some simulators to return to their duty, may be still farther evidenced by the circumstance that the sufferings imposed by malingerers upon them- selves are infinitely greater than any punishment a commanding officer would dare to inflict; e.g. a man, for a period of eighteen months, walked with his body bent forward, so that his arms reached within two inches of the ground. Cop-