![]() If a surgeon suspected malingering, his best recourse was to perform tests on the patient, appropriate to the disease, and question the patient at length about his condition. In the hospitals, constant surveillance was the best way to discover if a soldier was faking his illness, but such surveillance was impractical for the surgeons and often fell to the nurses or the other patients in the ward. Medical officers had to be vigilant to detect the malingerers under their care. The exaggeration of an existing disease or wound was also used in an attempt to fool the surgeons. ![]() Pretending to have heart disease, deafness, loss of voice, defects in vision, incipient tuberculosis, and hemorrhoids was also common. ![]() Chronic rheumatism was the most common feigned ailment early in the war, until the War Department prohibited the discharge of men for that disease in 1862. Since most soldiers had little medical knowledge, the most frequently feigned diseases were ones with which they were most familiar. The deceptions were done both by men wanting to escape the draft and by soldiers who were seeking a medical discharge or a transfer to a hospital. As the war progressed and men were less eager to become soldiers, the surgeons were faced with the task of unmasking feigned diseases and conditions. Recruits who entered the armies with concealed conditions became, at best, a burden on the military and, at worst, a source of contagion. Originally published in Spring 2004 in the Surgeon’s CallĮarly in the Civil War, when men were filled with enthusiasm and were eager to support the cause, examining surgeons had to be vigilant about concealed diseases and infirmities. Feigned Diseases Posted on: April 9th, 2004
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