The Dickinson press. (Dickinson, Stark County, D.T. [i.e. N.D.]) 1883-1927, 1889-12-07
STIMULATING DISEASE,
STRANGE CASES MET WITH BY PhY-
SlClANS AND OTHERS.

How People FeiEn Injuries and Other Disa.
bilities-Several illustrations Taken from
Life-How the Dcccptions Arc Discov-
cred.
Aman. apparently in great bodily pain,
was found lying upon the sidewalk ut
Front and Chestnut streets, by police
man. Tho man had fallen call in n heap"
and his story was that hc had been way
laid and beaten. A patrol wagon was
summoned, but when an attempt was
made to place him in the vehicle ho com.
planned of such exquisite pain it was
found necessary to discard the patrol
wagon and to carry the man on stretch
cr to hospital. On arriving at the lat
ter institution he was carefully removed
from the stretchcr to cot in the receiv-
ing ward, and, although handled very
tenderly, the change of position seemed
to aggravate his suffering. Singularly
enough. when the surgeons made an ex.
animation, it was found that when pin
was stuck in any portion of the mans
body below the neck he apparently failed
der tho circumstances was that he had
suffered a spinal injury. 1t was then
proposed to place the patient under an
an;esthctic, with the view of performing
all operation, but when tho man heard
this lie jumped off the cot and dartcd
quickly out of tho hospital gate and was
soon lost to view He had been "playing
lint ,1,,k
haps, never bo known.
TO AVOID THE DRAFT.
Such cases are not infrcqucntly met
with by physicians in their regular prac-
ticc and at hospitals and other charitable
institutions Either to excite sympathy,
or from other motives, people sometimes
cultivate the power of Stimulating dis
eases. These individuals are known to
the medical profession as "malingercrs, :"
and they become particularly numerous
OH certain occasions. During tho civil
war, at the time conscriptions were made,
it was surprising to see the number of
able bodied men limping along with canes
and apparently suffering with rheuma.
tisnl or other crippling ailments. While
1t is not always easy, even for an expert
doctor, to detect between real and sim
ulated disease, yet lie can generally dis
tinguish between the genuine and fcignel
rheumatism by the manner in which a
man plants his cane on tho pavement.
To understand the difference it is only
necessary to watch n man who carries a
cane to assist him in walking and one
who flourishes cane for pleasure.
Among tho disorders generally simu.
lated arc fainting and epilepsy. Both
have been SO well counterfcited as to have
been mistaken for genuine cases. 1t is
only when heroic measures are proposed
that the imposition is disclosed Not long
since an up town physician, while pass
ing an open air religious meeting on
Broad street, had his attention attracted
to middle aged woman, apparently suf-
fering with an epilcptic attack. She was
surrounded by group of sympathetic
men and women, and ono of the latter
had procured from neighboring resi-
dcncc pinch Of salt. Tho woman re-
covered consciousness, however, without
the use of the latter remedy.
On tho following Sunday the physician
noticed the same woman In church, and,
thinking she might be seized with another
spell, took n seat several pews from her.
Sure enough, an attack cano on, to the
discontinue of q number of nervous peo-
pie. Tho poor woman was carried out
to the vcstibule of tho church, and the
physician followed. The seeming epilep-
tic seizure passed off in about five min
utes.