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About The Omaha morning bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 1922-1927 | View Entire Issue (April 22, 1923)
The Sunday Bee r^j lteu~52^—NO. 45! OMAHA, SUNDAY MORNING, APRIL 22, 1923. FIVE CENTS Science Explains Why This Perfectly . Healthy Girl Got Such Great Satisfaction Out of Pretend ing She Was Burning Up With a Temperature \ of 118Six Degrees y Higher Than Ever ^^^^^^yBetore Recorded — "V-1 By I. I*. NASCHfcK, n. n. Tlie normal temperature ol tlie mouth in health is 98.4 degrees. In disease it rare ly goes above 105, except in some Infectious fovers, w he n 110 is some limes reached, and i n sun stroke, when a temperature of 114 has been recorded. But :• patient can live only a few hours with a temperature exceeding 105. Wliat the doc tor saw when I) e peeked through the kej hole of Kveljn'a bed j room. Mary McDonald, whose “toric* of ghosts in her Nora Scotia home proved to be all- Iter Imagination. J iHiii * t>o < n>jnr<i .» "nrM»kl<» ««vi 51^^* I km b> tS* trkk sh* |il>>r4 m 4en«rv not -*•> mJ b*r union noUwr When Evelyn Lyons of Escanuba. Mich., slyly removed the clinical thermometer from her mouth, placed It on a little hot water bag hidden under her blanket, then replaced It In her mouth, she did more than fool her doctor. The thermometer registered 11* degrees, and she creat ed a world wide sensation. She was a hysterical girl who wanted sympathy- and attention, and when she found that she gained them through this deception she kept It tip until it was exposed. We all have met persons, women and girls and sometimes men. who are forever talking about their Ills and ailments. They regard these as the most Important things in their Uses. ■^These persons are extremely sel fish. They constantly want sym pathy ami attention and the more they get the more they want. To secure sympathy they will invent all sorts of complaints and will even submit to painful operations In Evelyn Lyons' case she had gone with one complaint or another to every one of Escanaba's W phy sicians and to physicians elsewhere At one time she Inserted a piece of rubber catheter into the bladder and went to a hospital; had her appendix removed In Escanaba an-1 part of her thyroid gland removed in Chicago, deceiving physicians everywhere by fictitious or exag gemted symptoms. As ^he had been doing this for years she gained a smattering of medical knowledge and of nursing Ad therefore was able to avoid the mistakes usually made by such tricksters But even the cleverest of frauds sooner or latter over reach theniselve* One day Evelyn complained of a pain In h-'r lvaek and her mother put her to bed and applied a little hot water bag But she continued to complain of pain and finally the doctor was called In. She knew that the doctor would not believe her storv unless she had an eley atlon of temperature. When he put the clini cal thermometer In her mouth she took advantage of a moment's Inat tention on his |vart to remove it. place It on her little hot water bag and then replace it in licr mouth When the doctor looked at the Tjiermonv’ter it stood at 10* de grees. The ordinary temperature of the mouth In health |s 9*4 de grees with slight variations during the day. In disease the tempera ture rises, but rarely g <■* above lor. degrees except In sunstroke. In which n 'temperature of 114 degrees has been reached and In some of •the infectious fevers when tempera ture* rang.ng aa high as 110 de grees have been found. While there is a record of the survival of a patient whose temperature reached 112 degrees and remained there a few minutes, a prolonged tempera ture of even 101 degrees is usually fatal within a few hours. The ordinary clinical ther mometer registers up to 110 de grees and the column of mercury remains at the highest point until It is shaken down. When Evelyn** doctor found a temperature of 10$ degrees he tried it again with another thermometer. This time It recorded 110 degree*, the limit of the scale. A chemical thermometer waa brought and a temperature of 114 degrees was recorded. The city au thorities were notified and she was forcibly removed to a hospital. On admission a temperature of 101 4 degrees was found, but her tem perature the next two days was normal and she wa* discharged When Evelyn found she had be come famous ns the girl with the highest temperature on record, she wanted to live up to her reputation. She Insisted upon remaining in bed and continued to complain of tho pains In her back for wh ch her mother gave her the hot water bag. So long as she remained in bed her temperature continued high, going up on one occasion to IIS degrees. Hectors usually allow a little lee way both for exaggeration and for the minimizing of symptoms by the patient, but they believ* the ther mometer. The patient may lie but the thermometer is expected to tell the truth. Hut when several ther mometers keep on recording tem perature* ranging from 10$ to 11* degree* and the patient i* other wise comparatively well, there is cither something radically wrong with the patient or some deception Is being practiced, Tire Journal of the American Med cal association sent two in vestigator* to Kscabana. They found the girl's body temperature normal hut her mouth temperature high. They detected her trying to shake the thermometer while remov ing it from her mouth, so that it would register higher. If this failed she broke the thermometer. After several unsatisfactory tests the investigators left the room while she had the thermometer in her mouth, closed the door behind them and watched her through the key hole. And this is what they saw: As soon as Evelyn saw the door close she sat up in bed. Reaching under the bed clothes, she produced a very small rubber hot water bag. and. taking the thermometer from her mouth, she pressed |t against the bog. Then she hid the bag un der the blankets, put the ther mometer back in her mouth and disposed herself in bed just as she had been when the invest.gator* left her. When they returned to the room the mercury in the thermometer w;ui as high as it can go. And no wonder, for that little rubber bag which they now made Evelyn pro duce wns full of very hot water. Hysterical malingerer*, as trick stors like this are known, seek sym pathy and notoriety, and will do almost anything to secure them. Their emotions overwhelm their reason and judgment, and y»* they often exhibit unbeltevahle shrewd ness and cunning in their efforts to deceive In some cases they will submit to painful tests and opera tions. to agonising contortions, even to self mutilation. Hysteria is a well recognised mental disease which gives a num ber of mental and physical symp tom*. Increased, diminished or per verted sensations, motions, etc. Malingering is one of the constant symptoms of hysteria. Most malingering has. however a clear rational purpose and la not due to mental aberration In most cases the purpose is either to escape punishment to avoid conscription or some other duty, to obta.r. financial benefit or secure release from prison or asylum or from military service. Malingerers generally defeat then selves by overacting or by lack of preparations or instruction. A pvor tailor confined in a York prison ate soap for a few weeks and made himself so ill that a petition praying for permission • to die at home.' was followed by a speedy pardon. The man recovered a few days after his release In the conscription examinauocs in Kurope and m the draft exami nations In this country when we entered the war, malingering was frequent. At the draft board where the writer was one of the medical ex aminera poor vution malingerers weie generally detected by m ear s of glasses of different strength and color. Those whose poor vis or, was deliberately produced by drug* which dilated or contracted the pupils, were cured when drugs hav ing the opposite effect were used If this did not cure them the threat of hospital treatment and operation usually had the desired effect Some of those who pretended they could not hear instinctively turned around when a silver quarter eras dropped behind them on the stone steps down which they were going. Some were found kee:eng t. to with their feet to the d otant music of a band t•"*’ man who rbcr.<d to b • heart-disease had ,a very ru: 1 thumping heart. This usually oc curs during or immediately after active, strenuous exercise, espec I ly in one who has done much ath letic work He said he was nM an athlete and had not done any hes.Tr work or active exercise In ar. hour his heart bes" ®« nearly normal, and an hour late it was perfectly normal. He had taken a drug j..sc before the ex amination which prvxfuced the car 1 thumping heart There are two form* of mat!' Ber ing diseases Fi.'t'iious or frig- 1. in wh.ch the Individual coni pis a of symptoms which do not ex st and fictitious or a: fcial dise.s-s In which a d.sease or injury i* de liberately produced or made wnerse The most Jiff-uit to deflect is ths feigned disease ir. which par, is ths only symptom, for the doctor can not positively disprove the exst enoe of pa.n. Isuaily the malingerer betrays himself when he believes that he is unobserved, doing th r.gs then which he could not do while be.-g examined and which would be ita pvmsible if the degree of pa.a com plained of really existed A woman sued a street radwav company for Injur-ee race.red in a fall from a broken ear step. At the n-.edcal exam'.rati on the next day she gave evtJero* of great suffering, screaming w hea her t ribe were moved. Fra slight fan (s Page Wight >
