MALINGERING.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVI, Issue 43, 26 June 1913, Page 4

MALINGERING.

As had been fairly predicted when Mr Lloyd George was pressing his Insurance Act on the country there has been a lot of trouble with malingerers, and a very great many cases have already been exposed. It is only human nature after all and the old trick of gaining ease, or rest from work, or some other fancied benefit, by pretending illness is not likely to disappear while this old world lasts. Not long ago Dr. Ltidwig Bernhard, a noted authority on political science, published a work entitled: 'The Fndenir able Results of German Social Policy,' 1 which deals with this problem. It seems that in Germany, notwithstanding the greatly improved medical and surgical methods, the duration of cure in some ailments and accidents is greater than in pre-insurance days. Before the Netherlands adopted Acci : dent Insurance, a Dutch professor, Dr. Kortwig, noted with surprise that men injured in Germany took much longer to recover than men injured in the same way in Holland. But when the Netherlands also adopted Accident Insurance, the duration of Dutch cures suddenly increased. In Denmark,, where victims of accident® are compensated with ' a money payment down, 93.6 per cent of "traumatic neurosis" cases are cured; whereas, in Germany, where the sufferer draws a pension, only 9.3 per cent, are cured. It is difficult to see how the trouble is to be guarded against.