Former Prevalence of Malingering in the Army; and the Motives for it--Decline of the Practice--Where most Prevalent--The means of Simulation reduced to a System--Cases of simulated Ophthalmia in the 50th Regiment--The Deception wonderfully kept up by many Malingerers--Means of Detection--Simulated Paralysis--Impudent Triumph manifested by Malingerers--Curious cases of Hollidge--Gutta Serena, and Nyctalopia counterfeited--Blind Soldiers employed in Egypt--Cure, by actual cautery, of a Malingerer--Simulation of Consumption and other Diseases--Feigned Deafness--Detection of a Man who simulated Deafness--Instances of Self-mutilation committed by Soldiers--Simulation of Death. A very serious evil has existed in the army, resulting from a very general practice of idle and dissolute soldiers in barracks, and even in more active service, feigning diseases and disabilities; for the purpose of either escaping duty, or in the hopes of being altogether discharged from the service, and procuring a pension. This imposture has been termed Malingering, or the simulation of diseases, and the unsuccessful or suspected impostors have been usually called Malingerers. In vulgar English, the trick is called Shamming Abram. Remarkable ingenuity, and a very considerable knowledge of the powers and effects of medicinal agents, have been shown by those who, _à priori_, would not be suspected of such information: and the pertinacity shown by the impostors, when the object was to procure their discharge, has been often wonderful. The reasons which call for, or privilege a soldier to expect, his discharge, are chronic and incurable rather than acute diseases. It is natural, therefore, to find the malingerers most expert in simulating the former, though, at the same time, the more acute diseases have not been less faithfully represented, when the object in view was only a temporary evasion of duty.