There are several objects, for the accomplishment of which persons are induced to simulate the existence of disease; such as, for obtaining military exemptions and discharges; or certain civil disqualifications; for the purpose of deriving parochial relief, or pecuniary assistance from benefit societies; or the comfortable shelter and retreat of an hospital; for exciting compassion and obtaining alms; for creating public interest and curiosity; for procuring release from confinement, or exemption from punishment; and, lastly, for the dishonest intention of recovering unjust compensation from some person selected for accusation, as the author of the pretended calamity.
The subject has been very ably treated by different authors on Medical Jurisprudence, especially by Mahon and Foderé, whose opportunities for observation during the severe operation of the conscription laws, must have been numerous and instructive; in our own country the work of Dr. Hennen, on the principles of Military Surgery, will be found to contain some very valuable information upon the detection of such impostures.
The diseases which have been selected for the accomplishment of any of the purposes above enumerated are extremely numerous, although there are some few which may be said to be more generally preferred on such occasions.
In general the medical enquirer will not have much difficulty in detecting such impositions; although there are cases where the investigation becomes a subject of extreme delicacy and importance, as in those of persons reporting themselves sick, and unfit for military service, or Malingerers, as they are technically called. It must be confessed that there is a degree of eclat attending the detection of a fraud, which is very likely to lead the practitioner astray, by inducing him to attach undue importance to the supposed proofs of guilt; such cases have unfortunately occurred, and the innocence of the party has been compromised by the vanity of the inquisitor.
Whenever the suspicions of a medical person are excited with respect to the sincerity of a patient’s account, he should always endeavour to conceal them; he should become himself a dissembler, “superare malitiam malitia,” for while the impostor is persuaded that the medical attendant is his dupe, he will be less on his guard; he should then be desired to describe with minuteness every symptom and circumstance of his malady; he should be questioned as to its origin, progress, and duration, its seat, and intensity, and the effects produced upon it by remedies; few impostors will be able to withstand such interrogatories without tripping; they will soon betray some incongruity in their statements, and enable the pathologist to elicit the truth. A girl of seventeen counterfeited epilepsy so well in the general hospital of Montpellier, as to elude all suspicion, until M. de Sauvages who being less credulous asked her whether she had not felt an air pass from the hand to the shoulder, and from the shoulder to the thigh, when, upon her replying in the affirmative, he ordered her to be whipped, after which she had never any return of the disease. If a patient complains of a long protracted disease, which has rendered his life uncomfortable, and we at the same time perceive that his body has not undergone emaciation, we are naturally led to suspect the truth of his statement; and we shall find little difficulty in verifying, or dispelling our suspicions; nor ought we to forget, in an inquiry of this nature, to learn whether the patient has in truth ever flown to any remedy for relief; for if he be an impostor, however cheerfully he may have appeared to submit to medical discipline, we shall find upon minute examination that he has uniformly neglected every plan proposed for his cure. Galen was, from a circumstance of this kind, led to the detection of a person who feigned a fit of cholic, in order to avoid attending a public assembly, but he was observed to neglect the remedy (Philonium) which had uniformly relieved him, when labouring under the actual attack of the disease to which he was in reality subject. We should, moreover, be informed respecting the previous character, habits, constitution, and former complaints of the suspected invalid; and we should learn the ostensible reasons which the individual in question may have for feigning ill health, whether for temporary or permanent purposes. 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.
When the more ordinary modes of investigation have failed in leading to the detection of an imposture, of whose existence we entertain but little doubt, we may proceed to a system of intimidation, and to severe discipline; few impostors, however sturdy, can withstand the cravings of hunger, blistering, the affusions of cold water, and above all a continual nausea from the administration of divided doses of Tartarized Antimony; and yet exceptions of an extraordinary kind might be adduced; “I have seen an instance,” says Dr. Hennen,[[560]] “where the patient admitted of all the preparatory measures of amputation before he thought proper to relax his knee joint;” the same author also relates the case of a dragoon who bore very severe riding-school duty for some weeks, secured to his horse, before he could be brought to acknowledge that his chronic rheumatism was assumed. Mahon[[561]] records a very extraordinary instance of a conscript, who feigned blindness, and baffled every attempt to detect the imposition; he was even placed on the margin of a river, and desired to go forward, which he did, and fell into the stream; he was however, without doubt, aware that boats were provided for his safety, for after having received his discharge, he freely acknowledged the imposition which he had practised.
Having offered these general remarks, we shall proceed to consider the particular diseases more usually counterfeited, and the modes best calculated for their detection; although we must here observe, that after all that can be said upon the subject, each case will require an exertion of ingenuity for its detection, for which no previous instruction can ever provide.
Insanity has in all ages been feigned for the accomplishment of particular objects; we read of its having been thus simulated by David, Ulysses, and Lucius Brutus; the observations which we have already made upon the subject of imputed insanity, will suggest to the medical inquirer a plan of examination most likely to lead to a just conclusion. In general the detection of such an imposture will not be difficult; the feigned maniac never willingly looks his examiner in the face, and if his eye can be fixed, the changes in his countenance, on being accused, will be strongly indicative of his real state of mind; it is moreover, very difficult to imitate the habits of a lunatic for any length of time, and to forego sleep; an insane person generally sleeps but little, and talks much during the night, but the pretender, if he thinks he is not watched, will sleep, and only act his part when he believes his conduct to be observed.
Somnolency. This is a state of body which the sturdy impostor has in several instances assumed; he pretends to be in a state incapable of any muscular motion; he is constantly in bed, retaining that posture in which his limbs are placed, or may happen to fall; his great aim is to appear unconscious of the external world; the interesting case of this kind related by Dr. Hennen[[562]] must be considered as the master-piece of imposture. A person of the name of Drake, in the Royal African Corps, assumed an appearance of total insensibility, under which he resisted every kind of treatment; he resisted the shower bath as well as shocks of electricity; but on a proposal being uttered in his presence to apply the actual cautery, his pulse rose; and on preparations being made to remove him to Bethlem hospital, an amendment soon manifested itself.
Syncope. It seems probable that certain persons have possessed a controlling power over the action of the heart; Dr. Cleghorn, of Glasgow, mentions in his lectures the case of a person whom he knew, who could feign death, and had so completely the power of suspending, or at least, moderating the action of the heart, that its pulsation could not be felt; this man, it appears, some years afterwards, died suddenly. The story of Colonel Townshend is well known, who, in the presence of Dr. Cheyne and some other physicians, put on all the appearance of death, and was resuscitated of his own accord; in this instance it is said that neither pulse nor respiration could be perceived for more than half an hour; he, however, actually died on the same evening.