PART I. GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. LXV. THE discharge of soldiers not unfrequently takes place, in all services, without good grounds for the surgeon's certificate. This arises from one of two circumstances-the surgeon overrates the disqualification, or the soldier feigns it. The mistake of the surgeon seldom occurs; but successful imposition is much more common. This imposition, technically termed malingering, is not so common in our mild service, as in the more severely disciplined armies 140 abroad. Instances are, however, not unfrequent in the United States army; and the surgeon, in arranging his professional views, should not confine them to the limited sphere of a peace establishment, but on this, and on all points, regard and prepare for what takes place in war, when, in all services, duty and discipline are so conducted that bad men will, if possible, evade them. Professional pride concurs with official obligation, to induce the surgeon to master this point of duty, involving, as it does, deep pathological discrimination; and if malingering be less frequent than formerly, it is because the surgeon's skilful scrutiny affords less prospect of successful imposition. LXVI. It has been well said that malingering is itself "one of the most disqualifying features a soldier can display." It is certainly a deeprooted vice, based on discontent or cowardice, or, to use the mildest terms, is a great weakness of character. It must, therefore, be looked at by the surgeon in all its bearings. If the certificate be perseveringly denied, the man may become more obstinate and worthless; and if discharge be prematurely granted, the example is bad. An actual cause of disqualification is, in most cases, obvious; but unfortunately, in the feigned case, there seldom can be the absolute certainty that warrants the compulsory performance of duty, or the infliction of any punishment. Marshall, who has written so ably on this subject, admits that, in the face and eyes of British discipline and of the experience and talent of their surgeons, the malingerer deliberately bent on his purpose, will sooner or later attain it. What adds to the difficulty is, that the best soldiers will sometimes simulate for a discharge; and in such cases the surgeon loses all the advantage derived from a knowledge of previous character, as that, in bad men, aids in discrimination. It is important to the service to detect an impostor, for the example has great force. At the same time it is due to humanity and to science, that, by the agency of the surgeon, the innocent shall never suffer what is due only to the guilty-as, in the following cases, is strikingly illustrated. M. Foderé gives an instance in the French service of a youth, who complained of pain in various parts; but as his general health did not appear to suffer, he was treated as a simulator-yet the youth died of the complaint. Doctor James Johnson, in the British service, gives the case of a soldier who said he could not move one of his shoulders. Being medically treated for a long time without effect, and showing no symptoms of constitutional disorder, the man was tried for feigning disability and severely whipped. Yet the case terminated in abscess of the shoulder, and anchylosis of the affected joint. What a lesson, too, is inculcated by cases in the English army, where men, being pronounced simulators of madness, were tried and flogged by sentence of court-martial; and yet, were subsequently, and most satisfactorily proved to have been maniacs at the time of punishment. Well may the inclinations of the service and of the surgeon be to mercy; let the guilty escape rather than punish the innocent. LXVII. WHAT THEN IS TO BE DONE? Let the surgeon approach all cases in the most liberal spirit, without the bias either of |