The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1869-11-27
TWENTY-FIVE MoM1HsoF SILENCE
fIHLslII =
From An Tie Year Around

tWENII-uNe mumIho W otteuOss
From An TIE Year Around) AGA,
It happened on q summer evening,
now something more than two years ago,
that the surgeon of a certain regiment
of high standing athen2 quaFtered at
Chatham, was'engsged in his surgery in
making some experiments Of chemical
sort, when one of the men belonging to
the regiment came to the door and de-
sired to have speech with him. This
man was a private John. Strong by
name, lately enlisted, and not remarka-
BILE hitherto as having in any way
shown himself to be different from the
rest of the rank and file of the corps. He
had come to the doctor, he said, to
complain of the state of his health. He
felt so "queer" all over, as he described
it; could not settle down,t to any occupa.
ton; was cold aud hot by turns; had
pains all over his body and limbs, and
was altogether very. much "out of
sorts" After hearing all this, and after
having recourse TO the usual pulse feel
ing and tongue inspecting formula, the
doctor wrote the man an order for 2d
mission to the infirmary, and, telling
him to 90 to bed Immediately, promised
to visit him when he made his usual
rounds the first thing next morning.
True to his promise, at an carly hour
on the following day tho regimental
surgeon, whom we will call Dr. Curzon,
went to the infrmary, and made his
way to the bedside of the new patient,
expecting to find him suffering from
some light feverish attack or some other
trifiing ailment, which q day or two's
quiet and a dose of medicine would
quickly set right. The aspect of the
invalid as the surgeon approached the
bed was even more encouraging than he
had expected, and DIR. Curzon was on
the point of giving him his views on
the subject of false alarms, when, hap
peniDg to look more attentiyely at the
patient than he had done before, he OBJ
served that Private Strong was gestic-
ulating in very extraordinary man
ner, and especially twisting his mouth
and jaws into variety of strange and
unearthly contertions, as if in an inef-
fectual attempt to utter some articulate
sounds, which would not come forth,
On examining him yet more attentive
", the doctor observed that sheet of
paper was lying on his breast, on which
was written the following inscription:
az have had fit in the night, and
have lost the power of speaking"
DR.. Curzon had been IN army surgeon
for many q long year, and had come in
contact with numberless instances OF
dc 'eit and shamming, practised by
ST. RS with view of obtaining o dis.
ohn 10 4, hnr M
them had, to his own certain knowledge
assumed to be mad or idiotic: how other:
had scratched raw places on their limbs
and bound over them penny pieces Tin
the days Of the old copper coinage), or
even rubbed them with phosphorus OBJ
tanned from lucifer matches, in order to
make such abrasions resemble sores of a
dangerous and incurable sort. Then,
besides, there are books written on this
subject full of the most wonderful ex-
smples of feigning in the matter of dis.
ease, such stimulation being sometimes
engaged in with view to some special
object, and sometimes (but this almost
invariably by women) with the desire of
attaching attention and winning kind
of rOnown. Among men this Stimulating
Of disease-maligning it 10 called in
military phrase-is resorted to with o
specific intention. "The sufferings i'm.
posed by maligners on themselves" says
Gavin on Feigned Diseases, "are infini.
tely greater than any punishmenta COM
mandlng officer would dare to inflict;
thus soldier for period of eighteen
months walked with his body bent
forward so that his arms reached within
two inches of the ground" In another
. discharge was so eagerly coveted that
o man had his arm shot through tn
obtain it, while in another place, when
treating of the extreme difficulty of
getting hold of any evidence by means
of which the maligner may be Grimm.
ated, he expresses shrewdly enough his
opinion that "therei is q kind OF Free
masonry among soldiers which is perhaps
conducive to the, harmony of the
barrack-room, but which, by preventing
the exemplary from--exposfug the
worthless, aud by holding up the
informer as an object of universal
adherence, renders it extremely
difficult to obtain an acculating disease"
Another medical authority proclaims
that he has mo doubt that methods
have been systematised for Stimulating
disease, and shat these are preserved in
many regiments and handed over for the
beneht of those who may be inclined to
make trial of them.H
DIR. Curzon questioned the other
occupants OF the inirmary and especial
ly those WHO selpt in the beds which
stood one on each side of that oecupied
by Private Strong, as to whether thew
had seen or heard anything of this
seizure or fit, by which the dumb man
professed to have been attacked in the
night. Not enc of them knew anything
about it, and it iwss evident that if the
man had ever really been the victim of
such a seizure, he had taken it very
quietly and had not thought it necessary
TO disturb his companions, which, even
supposlng dumbness to have been one
of the first symptoms of his attack, he
might easily have done, the very fact
Of his having inscribed the particulars
OF his case upon the paper which the
doctor found lying on his breast proving
that he was certainly in possession Of
oil his other faculties.
Dr. Curzon proceeded next to subject
the patient himself to q very searching
examination. He addressed several
u