The Press., 1897-03-11
A PRECIOUS ROGUE.
HE WAS EXCEEDINGLY CLEVER IN
 FEIGNING EPILEPTIc FITS.

FEiGNlNG EPILEPTIC FITS.
 His Desperate Expedient to Maintain Ills l Standing Carefully Watched by Ex-
 perts For 8 Long Time-Finally Betray- ed In Simple Manner.
 Dr. Robert Safford Newton tells an interesting story of an impostor who successfully feigned epilepsy for great number of years, in spite of the fact that he was watched by the most skill ful neurologists.
 ''How to feign epileptio fits forms necessary part of the education of many criminals in Europe and America In England, where it has been successfully worked for great many years and is we'll known to the police, the feigning of epilepsy is called throwing of fits and dummy chucking. It is invariably worked ill threes, after this formula: Two men. evidently friends, are walk ing along the street, when suddenly one of them falls in an epileptic fit. The friend of the sick man pretends to be greatly worried and gives all of his at tention to the resuscitation. Naturally enough, crowd gathers around. The third man lifts pocketbooks and watch es and makes off with them.
 "There is one man whose career as feigner of epilepsy is most remarkable. This mans name was Craig, and my first knowledge of him was when was connected with the Whitechapel Road House hospital, the biggest hospital in hn% whenever Craig fell in fit in the streets of London, reports were sent in to the police of money and jewelry lost. He was more than suspected and was sent into the hospital, both to be treated and to be watched This man was perfect fraud, but he was so well up in his aos- ing that though he was most carefully watched he escaped detection. He was valuable man, but perhaps his pals feared that the London police had too close an eye on their movements. At all events Craig was next heard of in America. The old formula was repeated. He fell in fits, and valuables stolen were reported to the police. He was shifted around from hospital to hospital, and a careful watch was kept upon him, both when he was in one of these fits and in the time of their intermission.
 "Craig began to think that coup de theatre WAS necessary to save his repu- tation. He was at this time confined in a hospital and was in one of the upper wards in the front part of the building. There were doors that opened out on balcony. This balcony was 38 feet from the ground, and at it's base there was a solid stone pavement. Epileptics are us- ually dull, stupid sort of people, even when not ill fits, and Craig feigned this stupidity as we'll as the other symptoms of the disease. He was allowed to wan der about the hospital pretty much as he pleased, and every once in awhile down he would fall ill a fit. The doctors had not discovered his fraud, but Craig felt more than uneasy at the way he was watched and suspected. One morning he got up from his chair, and, with dazed sort of a look, at the same time putting his hands up to his head, he staggered toward the balcony and tumbled over backward-down, down, the full S8 feet | ito the stone pavement below. When he was picked up, it was found that one of his wrists was broken and that he was | otherwise hurt, though, wonderful to tell, not seriously. Of course this settled | in the minds of the doctors the doubt that had previously existed as to whether he was fraud or not. The thing work ed exactly as Craig had planned that it should. and in course of time he was discharged as 8 true but incurable cpl leptic. Once again on the outside, he worked successfully the old game of fits and pocket picking in threes.
 "Onoe more he was taken up and sent to the hospital. Here young doctor set for himself the task of watching this clever rogue. He had every symptom. He would froth at the mouth, blood would stream from his tongue that he had bitten in his convulsions, and there seemed nothing wanting ill real epilep- sy. But this young doctor kept his vigil, and patience had it's reward.
 "One day, just as Craig was going through the preliminaries before falling -the looking dazed, the slowly attempt ing to fight off the coming spasms, the clinching of the hands-the young doc- tor who was watching him observed that, instead of closing the hands with the fingers over the thumbs, as would have been the case necessarily in true epilepsy-for the thumb, having the shorter muscle, must feel the contract ing force first-Craig shut his hands with the fingers on the inside of the thumbs. The doctor gave him gentle kick in the side and said: 'That'll do, Craig. I've caught you. You are fraud. You've done your tricks we'll and for a long time, but your time is up. If you had been true epileptio or just little better read in medicine, you would have closed the fingers over the thumbs , Without a single protest Craig straight ened up and said, Well, knew it was bound to come some time.
 "What became of the mann"
 ''Oh, his talents found market He was so we'll known, had been so written up for the medical journals of both Eu- rope and America, that the doctors hired him to go before medical students and demonstrate to them how epilepsy could be feigned and also to explain how these pretenders were taught in England and elsewhere. To counterfeit the frothing at the mouth they used small piece of soap. If there was any danger of deteo. tion, they could swallow both soap and froth. With little sharp knife stab could be given to the tongue which would simulate the biting of that mem ber. "-New York Tribune.
 | Rockers.
 As far back as the seventh century the venerable Bede wrote, "The women now