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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    pain, till at last by these means the comforts and prospects of the patient have been utterly des- troyed. Moreover, a great proportion of the cases of dyspepsia, which are generally treated on what is called Mr. Abernethy’s plan, may be removed, with equal certainty, without giving a grain of mercury, by means of a pill every second evening containing aloes if it agrees, if not a pill which will act slowly and moderately, a draught before meals containing some bitter infusion with an alkali, or some nervous medicine, carminative or chalybeate, according to the case, appropriate diet and re- gimen, and change of residence. My opportunity of observing most of the varieties of disordered digestion, and my experience in treating them without mercury, leads me to protest against the present routine of practice in these cases. Fever. A soldier whom I had discharged from the infirmary, where he had been feigning disease of the lungs, was sent back shortly after his dis- charge according to the admission ticket, “ in fever.” He acted his part remarkably well ; he still complained of pain in his chest, and had a dry white tongue *, the tongue was so dry and white that I ordered him to wash his mouth with tepid water, which left his tongue, which he had prepared for me by rubbing it with whiting from the wall, perfectly clean and moist. I forthwith sent him to his regiment and never saw him again. A soldier who had been in the country on fur-
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