On the feigned and factitious diseases of soldiers and seamen, on the means used to simulate or produce them, and on the best modes of discovering impostors : being a short abstract of the prize essay delivered during the session 1835-6, to the Professor of military surgery in the University of Edinburgh / by Hector Gavin.

  • Gavin, Hector.
Date:
1838
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the feigned and factitious diseases of soldiers and seamen, on the means used to simulate or produce them, and on the best modes of discovering impostors : being a short abstract of the prize essay delivered during the session 1835-6, to the Professor of military surgery in the University of Edinburgh / by Hector Gavin. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    a classification, as would enable the surgeon, by it alone, to form an idea, not only of the frequency and success of imposition in any particular disease, but also of adjudg- ing to soldiers who were discharged with a pension, the rate of that pension, according as the disease on account of which they were discharged was or was not capable of simulation; premising, that though such a rule might, (and probably would,) be attended with individual in- justice, yet its practical advantages would counterbalance such a minor grievance; because there would be a fixed scale for the amount of pension to be awarded to soldiers discharged on account of a particidar disability, and a great consequent reduction of the Pension List, The idea that this object has been achieved by the classifica- tion contained in the present essay is not entertained ; though it may be presumed that some approach has been made to the principle on which such a classification should be founded. This object of the Professor, probably arose from the instruction given to the French medical officers, employed on the duty of inspecting disabled soldiers by the Ordonnance of 1831, to classify the disabilities which arise from wounds and other infirmities occasioned by military service, and which confer a claim for pension,