Elements of medical jurisprudence / By Theodoric Romeyn Beck and John B. Beck.

  • Theodric Romeyn Beck
Date:
1838
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Elements of medical jurisprudence / By Theodoric Romeyn Beck and John B. Beck. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    on the slightest touch to that part.. He was bled, and afterwards an anodyne exhibited. About midnight he was visited by the medical officer, and found sound asleep. Pressure was made on the ‘abdomen, and afterwards considerable kneading, before he awoke.* Lumbago, where the body was bent nearly double, has been repeatedly removed in a moment, by Baron Percy, holding the indi- vidual in an interesting conversation, whilst an assistant approached insidiously, and pierced him behind with a long needle. Chronic rheumatism, according to Dr. Cheyne, is distinguished by some disorder of the digestive organs, impaired appetite, a degree of pyrexia in the evening, yielding during the night to perspiration. There is also some emaciation, wasting of the muscles of the aflected limbs, and puffiness of the jomt. ‘The feigned, on the contrary, do not lose their healthy appearance—have no fever—do not become worse with damp weather, but are complaining at all times, and even allege that they have entirely lost the use of the part affected, which seldom happens in real rheumatism.+ An interesting case of feigned tic douloureux, or neuralgia, is mentioned by Dr. A. T. Thomson in his lectures. It occurred in the person of a young girl aged fifteen, who pretended to suffer great pain just back of the symphysis of the lower jaw. It produced her removal from school, the object she had in view. On a subsequent attack, Dr. Thomson resolved to try the effect of a strong mental impression ; and understanding that she entertained a great antipathy against a dog, informed her that the only remedy remaining was to rub the affected part over the back of the dog. It produced an immediate removal of the disease, and it continued absent for eighteen months. This case, accord- _ing to Dr. Thomson, has been published in the medical journals as an illustration of the effect of mental impressions on the nervous system ; yet, eight years afterwards, when this female had become a wife and mother, she wrote to him, stating that the whole course of the disease had been a deception. It is easy to feign hemoptysis, by pretending to ey and then spitting out the blood which comes from pricking the gums; or it may be assumed by constantly holding some armenian bole or vermilion paint under the tongue, which tinges the saliva of a red colour. Periodical attacks of this disease are most commonly simulated ; but it is difficult to counterfeit the accompanying marks of disease— such as the cough, flushed cheek, and even the florid and coagulated state of ba Maahal bn. a eee ts Cheyne, p. 170. A female presented ‘herself, some years since, at Mr. Ward- rop’s Hospital of Surgery in London. She complained of most excr uciating pain at the inner part of the right arm, in the situation of the biceps muscle ; and this she said extended in every direction. The sensibility of the skin was such that she could not bear to have it touched. The biceps was kept in a state of continual con- traction from the arm being constantly bent, and thus gave the appearance of a tumour. She spoke to Mr. Wardrop about amputation at the shoulder-joint, and professed her willingness to undergo any thing in order to be rid of this complaint, under which she had laboured for five years. It was ascertained that she had already been in four hospitals on a similar story. There was no fever, and her health and appearance were good.—Lancet, vol. xii. p. 603. + London Medical and Surgical Journal, vol. vii. p. 101.
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