Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1901-01-12
FEIGNING SICKNESS
Hospital Fakirs Who Make This Their
Stock in Trade
THEY OFTEN BECOME VERY EXPERT
But They Generally Break Down
Under Heroic Treatment.
MANY REMARKABLE CASES

Written for The Evening Star.
1t is the trade of the hospital fakir to
seem sick. Every hospital in the United
States knows him, and he will get into the
wards where the beds are clean and the
board Is free as long human nature is
prone TO deceive. The hospital fakir plies
his calling 18th the enthusiasm of the
tramp. His life holds a charm which is all
its own. Its prizes are board. lodging and
sometirpes a little alcohol. 1t fascinates the
simulator Of strange symptoms too, be-
cause he is always running what is to him
the really delightful risk of being found out
He will permit the surgeons to dose him
with disgusting mixtures; he will undergo
treatment which would make strong man
sick rather than suffer detection an ar
rant cheat. He also likes the attention
which he receives. for it gratifes whatever
personal vanity he may have TO see inter
ested and sometimes anxious physicians
bending over him. struggling to reconcile
his often contradictory symptoms.
Hospital fakirs are Of two kinds, the edu
Gated and the ignorant. The learned one
may have served an apprenticeship as a
drug clerk nurse. He may have been
an office 10y for physician or he may have
at one time actually studied medicine. The
educated fakir generally reaches his de-
graded condition through liquor NOR
phine The ignorant simulator of symp
toms Just takes a chance" usually with
out avail. for he seldom passes the muster,
even of the medical tyro. and is promptly
thrust forth from the hospital shelter into
cold world.
WeIl-KnOwn Case.
There are professional fakirs who take a
pride in all their accomplishments. one of
the best known OF them was. several years
ago, national celebrity. He had at his
command a store of "reminiscences which
would have made an entertaining book.
Through some error of a country surgeon
who atterr pied TO set the mans broken arm
without tie necessary appliances the fakir
was set up for life as an anatomical curl
osity. His arm, after it had been set, failed
TO unite thoroughly. There was union Of
cartilage only.
The man, who generally passed under the
name Of Hartman, could throw this member
about at any angle. He could reach around
the small of his back and careSs the back
OF his head. In addition to this accom-
phshment he had the power to run up his
pulse at will. BY some means which the
physicians could never understand he
could reach a number Of heart beats which
would hardly have seemed possible In
normal human being. He was such an
interesting fakir that hospitals received
him gladly in order that the physicians
might show him in their clinics. DR.. E.
]. Janeway of New York city was the first
to discover him. He has been the subject
OF lectures IN Clinics all over the country.
A Master Fakir.
One of the shining examples Of the gentle
craft Of hospital taking is dissimulator
OF universal genius named Graham. He
can at will be stricken with nearly every
malady known to science. One of his spe-
cialties is angina pectoris, in which role
he Is a consummate actor He can with
out apparent effort develop a death-lke
pallor. His pulse 1utters and his features
assume the expression of a man who feels
that he is about to die. Graham, mort
turus, takes keen delight in salutng ply
sicians who discover his fraud with vitu-
peraton which is far from feeble. Pulse
and even temperature are under his con-
tIol and he has the faculty Of regulating
every muscle of face and body.
Graham, like several other well-knoWn
exempIars OF his class, was originally q
drug clerk. who had become drug tiend.
1t is his habit to impose on the staff OF
every hospital in the large cities which he
visits His method IS to fan in convul-
sions IN some: street in the central part Of
the city, ard after having remained in a
hospital long as his deception is sue
cessful, to go to the urban outskirts AID
become grievousy tormented in mind and
body. He thus gets a chance to spend a
few days in each of the smaller hospitals.
II IS said that he is still wandering through
the country exhibiting his choice collec-
ton Of symptoms TO the medical frater-
nifty.
Always Get Caught.
Clever as the average hospital fakr IS In
his art he must eventually be caught The
physician knows of many symptoms which
cannot be consistently feigned. The mem
bers of the guild who can control their
pulses and who have the ever-present
knowledge and the presence of mind to
keep up the appearance OF sickness In
definitely comparatively few. The
human instinct betrays the awkward fakir
at once, and the detection of even the most
accomplished one is only a matter of time.
There appeared in a Buffalo hospital sew
eral years ago man, respectfully dressed,
who told story Of hard luck and i'll health.
He had, he said malady of the stomach
which made life uncomfortable to him. The
physicians did everything in their power
for him. They finally decided that there
was nothing wrong with any of his organs,
and they planned 10 get rid of him.
My friend said the chief of staff, 81
think that you need exercise. Suppose that
you take that broom and sweep the hall"
The patient swept the hall once. and
when the physician told him to begin all
over again he threw down the broom In
disgust
II am through" he said. II am on to
your game and you are on to mine"
Frequently the fakir is piled with appe-
Tiers and toncs which develop a ravenous
hunger The physicians then give him bare
ly enough food TO sustain life, and he skips
Epilepsy a Fnvorfte Fake.
Probably the disease most often counter
feited is epilepsy. Many of the fakirs select
prominent street corners in the cities
where they "chuck dummy to use Their
own vernacular. The purpose is two-fold
The sympathetic crowd which collects falls
an easy prey to the dummy -chucker's part
ner, who is a professional and accomplished
pickpocket. The fakir himself is trans.