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 a drop serene hath 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 subject of 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 medical officers; 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 close to 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.