Elements of medical jurisprudence / By Theodoric Romeyn Beck and John B. Beck.
- Beck, Theodric Romeyn, 1791-1855.
- Date:
- 1838
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Elements of medical jurisprudence / By Theodoric Romeyn Beck and John B. Beck. Source: Wellcome Collection.
40/1036 (page 16)
![- attend to other circumstances. If the hands of the real epileptic be forced open, they remain expanded ; but the feigned will immediately close them again.* The contractions also of various parts of the body always come on simultaneously in the real; nor is there any regular period in the return of the fits. Thus Vaidy,a French surgeon, de- tected a ease by stating to the individual that the real disease always came on in the morning. He swallowed the bait, and the attack always occurred before noon.t It is also asserted, that in the real, feigned, they succeed it. One fact should be kept in mind respecting this disease: the real kind of false shame; while the feigned talks about the disease, and takes no precaution to avoid publicity.§ Convulsions, when feigned, do not present that stiffness of the muscles, or that resistance and rapidity of action, which appear in the real. The treatment must be similar to that of epilepsy. Twenty years ago, says Foderé, I proved, by the aid of fire and force applied to the antagonist muscles, that a woman, who had imposed on a good curate in the Alps, was an impostor. She was supposed to be pos- sessed —fell down apparently without sense, and made frightful con- tortions. She could not, however, withstand the above tests, and rose up, to her great confusion, and the astonishmént of the spectators.|| In feigned cases, the muscles do not stiffen and contract as in real ones : hence continued action of the antagonist ones will develope the fraud. The following is a ludicrous feigned case of a minor form of con- vulsive action, confined to a particular part. A seaman pretended to have a convulsive motion of the muscles about the neck and upper part of the trunk, so as to produce an involuntary and incessant shrugging of the shoulders. ‘The surgeon, under pretence of being very desirous to ascertain how often the alternate elevation and de- pression of the scapula occurred in the day, set some of his comrades to watch him; one of whom made a mark upon a board with a piece of chalk, for every shrug ofthe impostor. He held out nearly twenty- four hours, and then exclaiming, “ You have done me!” offered to return to duty.4] * Marc. Orfila’s Lecons, vol. i. p. 414. +- Marshall, p. 178. + Dictionnaire des Sciences Médicales, Art. Epilepsie simulée, (by Marc). In a real and most severe case of epilepsy occurring in a criminal at Paris, Vareliaud, the medical examiner, found the teeth worn at every point where the upper had come in contact with the lower jaw. The lower incisives, in particular, were worn extremely at their fronts ; and yet the individual was only twenty-two years of age. The appearance of the teeth is hence worthy of examination in all doubtful cases. — Annales D’Hygiéne, vol. iii. p. 429. § Dumas of Montpelier, in his work on the Physiognomy peculiar to some chronic Diseases, mentions, that in constitutional epileptics, the facial angle is always under 80°, and recedes from that to 70°. He found this to be the case in many instances, at the hospital in Toulouse.— London Medical and Physical Journal, vol. xxvii. p. 38. || Foderé, vol. ii. p. 468. @ Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal, vol. xxx. p. 179. A somewhat](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b3328040x_0040.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
