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离散数å​¦ 基础与æ​​高 Discrete mathematics
elementary and beyond Luo Digital Instant Download
Author(s): Luo, Lovasz L.;Pei, Pelikan J.;Wei, Vesztergombi K
ISBN(s): 9787302138266, 7302138265
Edition: Ying yin ban
File Details: PDF, 2.19 MB
Year: 2006
Language: english
 Discrete Mathematics:
Elementary and Beyond

L. Lovász
J. Pelikán
K. Vesztergombi

Springer
Preface

For most students, the first and often only course in college mathematics
is calculus. It is true that calculus is the single most important field of
mathematics, whose emergence in the seventeenth century signaled the
birth of modern mathematics and was the key to the successful applications
of mathematics in the sciences and engineering.
But calculus (or analysis) is also very technical. It takes a lot of work
even to introduce its fundamental notions like continuity and the derivative
(after all, it took two centuries just to develop the proper definition of these
notions). To get a feeling for the power of its methods, say by describing
one of its important applications in detail, takes years of study.
If you want to become a mathematician, computer scientist, or engineer,
this investment is necessary. But if your goal is to develop a feeling for what
mathematics is all about, where mathematical methods can be helpful, and
what kinds of questions do mathematicians work on, you may want to look
for the answer in some other fields of mathematics.
There are many success stories of applied mathematics outside calculus.
A recent hot topic is mathematical cryptography, which is based on number
theory (the study of the positive integers 1, 2, 3, . . .), and is widely applied,
for example, in computer security and electronic banking. Other important
areas in applied mathematics are linear programming, coding theory, and
the theory of computing. The mathematical content in these applications
is collectively called discrete mathematics. (The word “discrete” is used in
the sense of “separated from each other,” the opposite of “continuous;” it is
also often used in the more restrictive sense of “finite.” The more everyday
version of this word, meaning “circumspect,” is spelled “discreet.”)
vi Preface

The aim of this book is not to cover “discrete mathematics” in depth

(it should be clear from the description above that such a task would be
ill-defined and impossible anyway). Rather, we discuss a number of selected
results and methods, mostly from the areas of combinatorics and graph the-
ory, with a little elementary number theory, probability, and combinatorial
geometry.
It is important to realize that there is no mathematics without proofs.
Merely stating the facts, without saying something about why these facts
are valid, would be terribly far from the spirit of mathematics and would
make it impossible to give any idea about how it works. Thus, wherever
possible, we will give the proofs of the theorems we state. Sometimes this
is not possible; quite simple, elementary facts can be extremely difficult to
prove, and some such proofs may take advanced courses to go through. In
these cases, we will at least state that the proof is highly technical and goes
beyond the scope of this book.
Another important ingredient of mathematics is problem solving. You
won’t be able to learn any mathematics without dirtying your hands and
trying out the ideas you learn about in the solution of problems. To some,
this may sound frightening, but in fact, most people pursue this type of
activity almost every day: Everybody who plays a game of chess or solves
a puzzle is solving discrete mathematical problems. The reader is strongly
advised to answer the questions posed in the text and to go through the
problems at the end of each chapter of this book. Treat it as puzzle solving,
and if you find that some idea that you came up with in the solution plays
some role later, be satisfied that you are beginning to get the essence of
how mathematics develops.
We hope that we can illustrate that mathematics is a building, where
results are built on earlier results, often going back to the great Greek
mathematicians; that mathematics is alive, with more new ideas and more
pressing unsolved problems than ever; and that mathematics is also an art,
where the beauty of ideas and methods is as important as their difficulty
or applicability.

László Lovász József Pelikán Katalin Vesztergombi

Contents

Preface v

1 Let’s Count! 1
1.1 A Party . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 Sets and the Like . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.3 The Number of Subsets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
1.4 The Approximate Number of Subsets . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
1.5 Sequences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
1.6 Permutations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
1.7 The Number of Ordered Subsets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
1.8 The Number of Subsets of a Given Size . . . . . . . . . . . 20

2 Combinatorial Tools 25
2.1 Induction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
2.2 Comparing and Estimating Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
2.3 Inclusion-Exclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
2.4 Pigeonholes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
2.5 The Twin Paradox and the Good Old Logarithm . . . . . . 37

3 Binomial Coefficients and Pascal’s Triangle 43

3.1 The Binomial Theorem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
3.2 Distributing Presents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
3.3 Anagrams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
3.4 Distributing Money . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
viii Contents

3.5 Pascal’s Triangle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

3.6 Identities in Pascal’s Triangle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
3.7 A Bird’s-Eye View of Pascal’s Triangle . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
3.8 An Eagle’s-Eye View: Fine Details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

4 Fibonacci Numbers 65
4.1 Fibonacci’s Exercise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
4.2 Lots of Identities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
4.3 A Formula for the Fibonacci Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

5 Combinatorial Probability 77
5.1 Events and Probabilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
5.2 Independent Repetition of an Experiment . . . . . . . . . . 79
5.3 The Law of Large Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
5.4 The Law of Small Numbers and the Law of Very Large Num-
bers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

6 Integers, Divisors, and Primes 87

6.1 Divisibility of Integers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
6.2 Primes and Their History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
6.3 Factorization into Primes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
6.4 On the Set of Primes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
6.5 Fermat’s “Little” Theorem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
6.6 The Euclidean Algorithm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
6.7 Congruences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
6.8 Strange Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
6.9 Number Theory and Combinatorics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
6.10 How to Test Whether a Number is a Prime? . . . . . . . . . 117

7 Graphs 125
7.1 Even and Odd Degrees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
7.2 Paths, Cycles, and Connectivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
7.3 Eulerian Walks and Hamiltonian Cycles . . . . . . . . . . . 135

8 Trees 141
8.1 How to Define Trees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
8.2 How to Grow Trees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
8.3 How to Count Trees? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
8.4 How to Store Trees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
8.5 The Number of Unlabeled Trees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

9 Finding the Optimum 157

9.1 Finding the Best Tree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
9.2 The Traveling Salesman Problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161

10 Matchings in Graphs 165

 Contents ix

10.1 A Dancing Problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165

10.2 Another matching problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
10.3 The Main Theorem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
10.4 How to Find a Perfect Matching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171

11 Combinatorics in Geometry 179

11.1 Intersections of Diagonals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
11.2 Counting regions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
11.3 Convex Polygons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184

12 Euler’s Formula 189

12.1 A Planet Under Attack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
12.2 Planar Graphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
12.3 Euler’s Formula for Polyhedra . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194

13 Coloring Maps and Graphs 197

13.1 Coloring Regions with Two Colors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
13.2 Coloring Graphs with Two Colors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
13.3 Coloring graphs with many colors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
13.4 Map Coloring and the Four Color Theorem . . . . . . . . . 204

14 Finite Geometries, Codes,

Latin Squares,
and Other Pretty Creatures 211
14.1 Small Exotic Worlds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
14.2 Finite Affine and Projective Planes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
14.3 Block Designs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220
14.4 Steiner Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224
14.5 Latin Squares . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
14.6 Codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232

15 A Glimpse of Complexity and Cryptography 239

15.1 A Connecticut Class in King Arthur’s Court . . . . . . . . . 239
15.2 Classical Cryptography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242
15.3 How to Save the Last Move in Chess . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244
15.4 How to Verify a Password—Without Learning it . . . . . . 246
15.5 How to Find These Primes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246
15.6 Public Key Cryptography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247

16 Answers to Exercises 251

Index 287
1
Let’s Count!

1.1 A Party
Alice invites six guests to her birthday party: Bob, Carl, Diane, Eve, Frank,
and George. When they arrive, they shake hands with each other (strange
European custom). This group is strange anyway, because one of them asks,
“How many handshakes does this mean?”
“I shook 6 hands altogether,” says Bob, “and I guess, so did everybody
else.”
“Since there are seven of us, this should mean 7 · 6 = 42 handshakes,”
ventures Carl.
“This seems too many” says Diane. “The same logic gives 2 handshakes
if two persons meet, which is clearly wrong.”
“This is exactly the point: Every handshake was counted twice. We have
to divide 42 by 2 to get the right number: 21,” with which Eve settles the
issue.
When they go to the table, they have a difference of opinion about who
should sit where. To resolve this issue, Alice suggests, “Let’s change the
seating every half hour, until we get every seating.”
“But you stay at the head of the table,” says George, “since it is your
birthday.”
How long is this party going to last? How many different seatings are
there (with Alice’s place fixed)?
Let us fill the seats one by one, starting with the chair on Alice’s right.
Here we can put any of the 6 guests. Now look at the second chair. If Bob
2 1. Let’s Count!

sits in the first chair, we can put any of the remaining 5 guests in the second
chair; if Carl sits in the first chair, we again have 5 choices for the second
chair, etc. Each of the six choices for the first chair gives us five choices
for the second chair, so the number of ways to fill the first two chairs is
5 + 5 + 5 + 5 + 5 + 5 = 6 · 5 = 30. Similarly, no matter how we fill the first
two chairs, we have 4 choices for the third chair, which gives 6 · 5 · 4 ways
to fill the first three chairs. Proceeding similarly, we find that the number
of ways to seat the guests is 6 · 5 · 4 · 3 · 2 · 1 = 720.
If they change seats every half hour, it will take 360 hours, that is, 15
days, to go through all the seating arrangements. Quite a party, at least as
far as the duration goes!

1.1.1 How many ways can these people be seated at the table if Alice, too, can
sit anywhere?

After the cake, the crowd wants to dance (boys with girls, remember,
this is a conservative European party). How many possible pairs can be
formed?
OK, this is easy: there are 3 girls, and each can choose one of 4 boys,
this makes 3 · 4 = 12 possible pairs.

After ten days have passed, our friends really need some new ideas to
keep the party going. Frank has one: “Let’s pool our resources and win the
lottery! All we have to do is to buy enough tickets so that no matter what
they draw, we will have a ticket with the winning numbers. How many
tickets do we need for this?”
(In the lottery they are talking about, 5 numbers are selected out of 90.)
“This is like the seating,” says George. “Suppose we fill out the tickets so
that Alice marks a number, then she passes the ticket to Bob, who marks
a number and passes it to Carl, and so on. Alice has 90 choices, and no
matter what she chooses, Bob has 89 choices, so there are 90 · 89 choices
for the first two numbers, and going on similarly, we get 90 · 89 · 88 · 87 · 86
possible choices for the five numbers.”
“Actually, I think this is more like the handshake question,” says Alice.
“If we fill out the tickets the way you suggested, we get the same ticket
more then once. For example, there will be a ticket where I mark 7 and
Bob marks 23, and another one where I mark 23 and Bob marks 7.”
Carl jumps up: “Well, let’s imagine a ticket, say, with numbers
7, 23, 31, 34, and 55. How many ways do we get it? Alice could have marked
any of them; no matter which one it was that she marked, Bob could have
marked any of the remaining four. Now this is really like the seating prob-
lem. We get every ticket 5 · 4 · 3 · 2 · 1 times.”
“So,” concludes Diane, “if we fill out the tickets the way George proposed,
then among the 90 · 89 · 88 · 87 · 86 tickets we get, every 5-tuple occurs not
 1.1 A Party 3

only once, but 5 · 4 · 3 · 2 · 1 times. So the number of different tickets is only

90 · 89 · 88 · 87 · 86
.
5·4·3·2·1
We only need to buy this number of tickets.”
Somebody with a good pocket calculator computed this value in a twin-
kling; it was 43,949,268. So they had to decide (remember, this happens in
a poor European country) that they didn’t have enough money to buy so
many tickets. (Besides, they would win much less. And to fill out so many
tickets would spoil the party!)
So they decide to play cards instead. Alice, Bob, Carl and Diane play
bridge. Looking at his cards, Carl says, “I think I had the same hand last
time.”
“That is very unlikely” says Diane.
How unlikely is it? In other words, how many different hands can you
have in bridge? (The deck has 52 cards, each player gets 13.) We hope
you have noticed that this is essentially the same question as the lottery
problem. Imagine that Carl picks up his cards one by one. The first card
can be any one of the 52 cards; whatever he picked up first, there are 51
possibilities for the second card, so there are 52 · 51 possibilities for the
first two cards. Arguing similarly, we see that there are 52 · 51 · 50 · · · 40
possibilities for the 13 cards.
But now every hand has been counted many times. In fact, if Eve comes
to kibitz and looks into Carl’s cards after he has arranged them and tries
to guess (we don’t know why) the order in which he picked them up, she
could think, “He could have picked up any of the 13 cards first; he could
have picked up any of the remaining 12 cards second; any of the remaining
11 cards third. . . . Aha, this is again like the seating: There are 13·12 · · · 2·1
orders in which he could have picked up his cards.”
But this means that the number of different hands in bridge is
52 · 51 · 50 · · · 40
= 635,013,559,600.
13 · 12 · · · 2 · 1
So the chance that Carl had the same hand twice in a row is one in
635,013,559,600, which is very small indeed.
Finally, the six guests decide to play chess. Alice, who just wants to
watch, sets up three boards.
“How many ways can you guys be matched with each other?” she won-
ders. “This is clearly the same problem as seating you on six chairs; it does
not matter whether the chairs are around the dinner table or at the three
boards. So the answer is 720 as before.”
“I think you should not count it as a different pairing if two people at
the same board switch places,” says Bob, “and it shouldn’t matter which
pair sits at which board.”
4 1. Let’s Count!

“Yes, I think we have to agree on what the question really means,” adds
Carl. “If we include in it who plays white on each board, then if a pair
switches places we do get a different matching. But Bob is right that it
doesn’t matter which pair uses which board.”
“What do you mean it does not matter? You sit at the first board, which
is closest to the peanuts, and I sit at the last, which is farthest,” says Diane.
“Let’s just stick to Bob’s version of the question” suggests Eve. “It is
not hard, actually. It is like with handshakes: Alice’s figure of 720 counts
every pairing several times. We could rearrange the 3 boards in 6 different
ways, without changing the pairing.”
“And each pair may or may not switch sides” adds Frank. “This means
2 · 2 · 2 = 8 ways to rearrange people without changing the pairing. So
in fact, there are 6 · 8 = 48 ways to sit that all mean the same pairing.
The 720 seatings come in groups of 48, and so the number of matchings is
720/48 = 15.”
“I think there is another way to get this,” says Alice after a little time.
“Bob is youngest, so let him choose a partner first. He can choose his
partner in 5 ways. Whoever is youngest among the rest can choose his
or her partner in 3 ways, and this settles the pairing. So the number of
pairings is 5 · 3 = 15.”
“Well, it is nice to see that we arrived at the same figure by two really
different arguments. At the least, it is reassuring” says Bob, and on this
happy note we leave the party.

1.1.2 What is the number of pairings in Carl’s sense (when it matters who sits
on which side of the board, but the boards are all alike), and in Diane’s sense
(when it is the other way around)?

1.1.3 What is the number of pairings (in all the various senses as above) in a
party of 10?

1.2 Sets and the Like

We want to formalize assertions like “the problem of counting the number
of hands in bridge is essentially the same as the problem of counting tickets
in the lottery.” The most basic tool in mathematics that helps here is the
notion of a set. Any collection of distinct objects, called elements, is a set.
The deck of cards is a set, whose elements are the cards. The participants
in the party form a set, whose elements are Alice, Bob, Carl, Diane, Eve,
Frank, and George (let us denote this set by P ). Every lottery ticket of the
type mentioned above contains a set of 5 numbers.
For mathematics, various sets of numbers are especially important: the
set of real numbers, denoted by R; the set of rational numbers, denoted by
Q; the set of integers, denote by Z; the set of non-negative integers, denoted
 1.2 Sets and the Like 5

by Z+ ; the set of positive integers, denoted by N. The empty set, the set
with no elements, is another important (although not very interesting) set;
it is denoted by ∅.
If A is a set and b is an element of A, we write b ∈ A. The number of
elements of a set A (also called the cardinality of A) is denoted by |A|. Thus
|P | = 7, |∅| = 0, and |Z| = ∞ (infinity).1
We may specify a set by listing its elements between braces; so

P = {Alice, Bob, Carl, Diane, Eve, Frank, George}

is the set of participants in Alice’s birthday party, and

{12, 23, 27, 33, 67}

is the set of numbers on my uncle’s lottery ticket. Sometimes, we replace

the list by a verbal description, like

{Alice and her guests}.

Often, we specify a set by a property that singles out the elements from a
large “universe” like that of all real numbers. We then write this property
inside the braces, but after a colon. Thus

{x ∈ Z : x ≥ 0}

is the set of non-negative integers (which we have called Z+ before), and

{x ∈ P : x is a girl} = {Alice, Diane, Eve}

(we will denote this set by G). Let us also tell you that

{x ∈ P : x is over 21 years old} = {Alice, Carl, Frank}

(we will denote this set by D).

A set A is called a subset of a set B if every element of A is also an
element of B. In other words, A consists of certain elements of B. We can
allow A to consist of all elements of B (in which case A = B) or none of
them (in which case A = ∅), and still consider it a subset. So the empty set
is a subset of every set. The relation that A is a subset of B is denoted by
A ⊆ B. For example, among the various sets of people considered above,
G ⊆ P and D ⊆ P . Among the sets of numbers, we have a long chain:

∅ ⊆ N ⊆ Z+ ⊆ Z ⊆ Q ⊆ R.

1 Inmathematics one can distinguish various levels of “infinity”; for example, one can
distinguish between the cardinalities of Z and R. This is the subject matter of set theory
and does not concern us here.
6 1. Let’s Count!

The notation A ⊂ B means that A is a subset of B but not all of B. In the

chain above, we could replace the ⊆ signs by ⊂.
If we have two sets, we can define various other sets with their help.
The intersection of two sets is the set consisting of those elements that are
elements of both sets. The intersection of two sets A and B is denoted by
A ∩ B. For example, we have G ∩ D = {Alice}. Two sets whose intersection
is the empty set (in other words, they have no element in common) are
called disjoint.
The union of two sets is the set consisting of those elements that are
elements of at least one of the sets. The union of two sets A and B is denoted
by A ∪ B. For example, we have G ∪ D = {Alice, Carl, Diane, Eve, Frank}.
The difference of two sets A and B is the set of elements that belong to
A but not to B. The difference of two sets A and B is denoted by A \ B.
For example, we have G \ D = {Diane, Eve}.
The symmetric difference of two sets A and B is the set of elements
that belong to exactly one of A and B. The symmetric difference of
two sets A and B is denoted by A B. For example, we have G D =
{Carl, Diane, Eve, Frank}.
Intersection, union, and the two kinds of differences are similar to addi-
tion, multiplication, and subtraction. However, they are operations on sets,
rather than operations on numbers. Just like operations on numbers, set
operations obey many useful rules (identities). For example, for any three
sets A, B, and C,
A ∩ (B ∪ C) = (A ∩ B) ∪ (A ∩ C). (1.1)
To see that this is so, think of an element x that belongs to the set on
the left-hand side. Then we have x ∈ A and also x ∈ B ∪ C. This latter
assertion is the same as saying that either x ∈ B or x ∈ C. If x ∈ B, then
(since we also have x ∈ C) we have x ∈ A ∩ B. If x ∈ C, then similarly we
get x ∈ A∩C. So we know that x ∈ A∩B or x ∈ A∩C. By the definition of
the union of two sets, this is the same as saying that x ∈ (A ∩ B) ∪ (A ∩ C).
Conversely, consider an element that belongs to the right-hand side. By
the definition of union, this means that x ∈ A ∩ B or x ∈ A ∩ C. In the
first case, we have x ∈ A and also x ∈ B. In the second, we get x ∈ A and
also x ∈ C. So in either case x ∈ A, and we either have x ∈ B or x ∈ C,
which implies that x ∈ B ∪ C. But this means that A ∩ (B ∪ C).
This kind of argument gets a bit boring, even though there is really
nothing to it other than simple logic. One trouble with it is that it is so
lengthy that it is easy to make an error in it. There is a nice graphic way
to support such arguments. We represent the sets A, B, and C by three
overlapping circles (Figure 1.1). We imagine that the common elements of
A, B, and C are put in the common part of the three circles; those elements
of A that are also in B but not in C are put in the common part of circles
A and B outside C, etc. This drawing is called the Venn diagram of the
three sets.
 1.2 Sets and the Like 7

A A

C B C B

FIGURE 1.1. The Venn diagram of three sets, and the sets on both sides of (1.1).

Now, where are those elements in the Venn diagram that belong to the
left-hand side of (1.1)? We have to form the union of B and C, which is
the gray set in Figure 1.1(a), and then intersect it with A, to get the dark
gray part. To get the set on the right-hand side, we have to form the sets
A ∩ B and A ∩ C (marked by vertical and horizontal lines, respectively in
Figure 1.1(b)), and then form their union. It is clear from the picture that
we get the same set. This illustrates that Venn diagrams provide a safe and
easy way to prove such identities involving set operations.
The identity (1.1) is nice and quite easy to remember: If we think of
“union” as a sort of addition (this is quite natural), and “intersection”
as a sort of multiplication (hmm. . . not so clear why; perhaps after we
learn about probability in Chapter 5 you’ll see it), then we see that (1.1)
is completely analogous to the familiar distributive rule for numbers:
a(b + c) = ab + ac.
Does this analogy go any further? Let’s think of other properties of addi-
tion and multiplication. Two important properties are that they are com-
mutative,
a + b = b + a, ab = ba,
and associative,
(a + b) + c = a + (b + c), (ab)c = a(bc).
It turns out that these are also properties of the union and intersection
operations:
A ∪ B = B ∪ A, A ∩ B = B ∩ A, (1.2)
and
(A ∪ B) ∪ C = A ∪ (B ∪ C), (A ∩ B) ∩ C = A ∩ (B ∩ C). (1.3)
The proof of these identities is left to the reader as an exercise.
Warning! Before going too far with this analogy, let us point out that
there is another distributive law for sets:
A ∪ (B ∩ C) = (A ∪ B) ∩ (A ∪ C). (1.4)
8 1. Let’s Count!

We get this simply by interchanging “union” and “intersection” in (1.1).

(This identity can be proved just like (1.1); see Exercise 1.2.16.) This second
distributivity is something that has no analogue for numbers: In general,

a + bc = (a + b)(a + c)

for three numbers a, b, c.

There are other remarkable identities involving union, intersection, and
also the two kinds of differences. These are useful, but not very deep: They
reflect simple logic. So we don’t list them here, but state several of these
below in the exercises.

1.2.1 Name sets whose elements are (a) buildings, (b) people, (c) students, (d)
trees, (e) numbers, (f) points.

1.2.2 What are the elements of the following sets: (a) army, (b) mankind, (c)
library, (d) the animal kingdom?

1.2.3 Name sets having cardinality (a) 52, (b) 13, (c) 32, (d) 100, (e) 90, (f)
2,000,000.

1.2.4 What are the elements of the following (admittedly peculiar) set:
{Alice, {1}}?

1.2.5 Is an “element of a set” a special case of a “subset of a set”?

1.2.6 List all subsets of {0, 1, 3}. How many do you get?

1.2.7 Define at least three sets of which {Alice, Diane, Eve} is a subset.

1.2.8 List all subsets of {a, b, c, d, e}, containing a but not containing b.

1.2.9 Define a set of which both {1, 3, 4} and {0, 3, 5} are subsets. Find such a
set with the smallest possible number of elements.

1.2.10 (a) Which set would you call the union of {a, b, c}, {a, b, d} and
{b, c, d, e}?
(b) Find the union of the first two sets, and then the union of this with the
third. Also, find the union of the last two sets, and then the union of this
with the first set. Try to formulate what you have observed.
(c) Give a definition of the union of more than two sets.

1.2.11 Explain the connection between the notion of the union of sets and
Exercise 1.2.9.

1.2.12 We form the union of a set with 5 elements and a set with 9 elements.
Which of the following numbers can we get as the cardinality of the union: 4, 6,
9, 10, 14, 20?
 1.3 The Number of Subsets 9

1.2.13 We form the union of two sets. We know that one of them has n elements
and the other has m elements. What can we infer about the cardinality of their
union?

1.2.14 What is the intersection of

(a) the sets {0, 1, 3} and {1, 2, 3};
(b) the set of girls in this class and the set of boys in this class;
(c) the set of prime numbers and the set of even numbers?

1.2.15 We form the intersection of two sets. We know that one of them has n
elements and the other has m elements. What can we infer about the cardinality
of their intersection?

1.2.16 Prove (1.2), (1.3), and (1.4).

1.2.17 Prove that |A ∪ B| + |A ∩ B| = |A| + |B|.

1.2.18 (a) What is the symmetric difference of the set Z+ of nonnegative in-
tegers and the set E of even integers (E = {. . . , −4, −2, 0, 2, 4, . . . } contains
both negative and positive even integers).
(b) Form the symmetric difference of A and B to get a set C. Form the sym-
metric difference of A and C. What did you get? Give a proof of the answer.

1.3 The Number of Subsets

Now that we have introduced the notion of subsets, we can formulate our
first general combinatorial problem: What is the number of all subsets of
a set with n elements?
We start with trying out small numbers. It makes no difference what the
elements of the set are; we call them a, b, c etc. The empty set has only
one subset (namely, itself). A set with a single element, say {a}, has two
subsets: the set {a} itself and the empty set ∅. A set with two elements, say
{a, b}, has four subsets: ∅, {a}, {b}, and {a, b}. It takes a little more effort
to list all the subsets of a set {a, b, c} with 3 elements:

∅, {a}, {b}, {c}, {a, b}, {b, c}, {a, c}, {a, b, c}. (1.5)

We can make a little table from these data:

Number of elements 0 1 2 3
Number of subsets 1 2 4 8

Looking at these values, we observe that the number of subsets is a power

of 2: If the set has n elements, the result is 2n , at least on these small
examples.
10 1. Let’s Count!

It is not difficult to see that this is always the answer. Suppose you have
to select a subset of a set A with n elements; let us call these elements
a1 , a2 , . . . , an . Then we may or may not want to include a1 , in other words,
we can make two possible decisions at this point. No matter how we decided
about a1 , we may or may not want to include a2 in the subset; this means
two possible decisions, and so the number of ways we can decide about a1
and a2 is 2 · 2 = 4. Now no matter how we decide about a1 and a2 , we have
to decide about a3 , and we can again decide in two ways. Each of these
ways can be combined with each of the 4 decisions we could have made
about a1 and a2 , which makes 4 · 2 = 8 possibilities to decide about a1 , a2
and a3 .
We can go on similarly: No matter how we decide about the first k
elements, we have two possible decisions about the next, and so the number
of possibilities doubles whenever we take a new element. For deciding about
all the n elements of the set, we have 2n possibilities.
Thus we have derived the following theorem.

Theorem 1.3.1 A set with n elements has 2n subsets.

a‰S
Y N

b‰S b‰S

Y N Y N

c‰S c‰S c‰S c‰S

Y N Y N Y N Y N

{a,b,c} {a,b} {a,c} {a} {b,c} {b} {c} ∅

FIGURE 1.2. A decision tree for selecting a subset of {a, b, c}.

We can illustrate the argument in the proof by the picture in Figure 1.2.
We read this figure as follows. We want to select a subset called S. We start
from the circle on the top (called a node). The node contains a question:
Is a an element of S? The two arrows going out of this node are labeled
with the two possible answers to this question (Yes and No). We make a
decision and follow the appropriate arrow (also called an edge) to the node
at the other end. This node contains the next question: Is b an element of
S? Follow the arrow corresponding to your answer to the next node, which
Other documents randomly have
different content
the Israelites, besieging the city of Ai, said, “Behold ye shall lie in
wait against the city, even behind the city: go not very far from the
city, but be ye all ready: and I, and all the people that are with me,
will approach unto the city: and it shall come to pass, when they
come out against us, as at the first, that we will flee before them.
For they will come out after us, till we have drawn them from the
city; then ye shall rise up from the ambush, and seize upon the city:
for the Lord your God will deliver it into your hand.”
Thus fell the city of Ai into the hands of Joshua, and a similar kind
of stratagem has since frequently turned the day between
contending armies. Julius Cæsar did not consider it beneath a
general or warrior to have recourse to almost a similar stratagem,
when part of the army under Q. Cicero, in Gaul, was besieged. By
the apparent flight of his troops, Julius Cæsar drew the enemy into a
convenient spot for an engagement, and, turning, overcame them.
A circumstance most trifling in itself, when it has been ushered in
by superstition, as a good omen, has often raised the spirits of an
army. Xenophon relates, in the Anabasis, that when the Greeks in
some alarm were consulting, previous to the celebrated retreat of
the ten thousand out of Asia, an accident, which in itself was even
ridiculous, did nevertheless, through the importance attributed to it
by the Grecian superstition, assist not a little to infuse
encouragement. Xenophon was speaking of that favour from the
gods which a righteous cause entitled them to hope for, against a
perjured enemy, when somebody sneezed: immediately, the general
voice addressed ejaculations to protecting Jupiter, whose omen it
was supposed to be, a sacrifice to the god was proposed, a universal
shout declared approbation, and the whole army in chorus sang the
pæan.
Bias, by the following artifice, induced Alyattes, King of Lydia, to
raise the siege of Priene, where he was born. That city was pressed
by famine, which circumstance being suspected by the besiegers,
gave them great hopes; Bias, however, caused two mules to be
fattened, and contrived a way to have them pass into the enemy’s
camp. The good condition they were in astonished the king, who
thereupon sent deputies into the city, under pretence of offering
peace, but really to observe the state of the town and people. Bias,
guessing their errand, had ordered the granaries to be filled with
heaps of sand, and those heaps to be covered with corn. When the
deputies returned, and made their report to the king, of the great
plenty of provisions they had seen in the city, he hesitated no longer,
but concluded a treaty and raised the siege.
The invention of telegraphic communication has proved of the
greatest utility in modern warfare, both for despatch and security. In
ancient times, the bearer of messages had both an important and
dangerous duty to perform, and one which was very uncertain in its
execution. A singular and ingenious method of communication, is
attributed to Hystiæus, who, desiring to write to Aristagoras, shaved
the head of his trustiest servant, and wrote upon his scalp, in certain
brief characters, what he would impart to his friend, and keeping
him in his house till the hair was grown as thick as before, then sent
him on his errand.[10]
By the policy of Gracchus, the Roman general, the Campanian city
of Casilinum was for a considerable time prevented from falling into
the hands of Annibal. Gracchus was encamped in the vicinity of the
city, but, though the garrison was reduced to the most dreadful
extremity by famine, many of the soldiers having been driven to
commit suicide, he did not dare to make a movement to relieve the
besieged, the dictator having imperatively enjoined him not to stir
from his position. In this emergency he had recourse to stratagem.
The Vulturnus ran through the place, and Gracchus resolved to
make it the channel by which to convey succours. “He therefore,”
says Livy, “collected corn from all parts of the country round, and
having filled therewith a great number of casks, sent a messenger to
Casilinum to the magistrate, desiring that the people should catch
the casks which the river would bring down. The following night was
passed in attentively watching for the completion of the hopes raised
by the Roman messenger, when the casks, being sent along the
middle of the stream, floated down to the town. The same
stratagem was practised with success on the following night and on
the third; but the river being afterwards rendered more rapid by the
continued rains, an eddy drove them across to the side where the
enemy’s guards were posted, and they were discovered sticking
among osiers which grew on the banks. This being reported to
Annibal, care was taken for the future to guard the Vulturnus with
greater vigilance, so that no supply sent down by it to the city
should pass without discovery. Notwithstanding which, quantities of
nuts being poured into the river at the Roman camp, and floating
down to Casilinum, were stopped there with hurdles. The scarcity,
however, at last became so excessive, that tearing off the straps and
leathern coverings of their shields, and softening them in boiling
water, they endeavoured to chew them; nor did they abstain from
mice or any other kind of animal. They even dug up every sort of
herb and root that grew at the foot of the ramparts of the town; and
when the enemy had ploughed up all the ground round the wall,
that produced any herbs, they sowed it with turnip seed, which
made Annibal exclaim, ‘Am I to sit here before Casilinum until these
grow?’ Although he had hitherto refused to listen to any terms of
capitulation, yet he now allowed overtures to be made to him,
respecting the redeeming of the men of free condition. An
agreement was made, that for each of these a ransom should be
paid of seven ounces of gold; and then the garrison surrendered.”
A still more daring, and almost equally successful stratagem was
employed, early in the eighteenth century, to protract the defence of
Lisle, which was then besieged by the Duke of Marlborough and
Prince Eugene. Ammunition beginning to be scarce in the city, the
Chevalier de Luxembourg formed a plan for introducing into the
fortress a supply, not only of powder, but also of men and arms.
Having succeeded in keeping his project a secret from the enemy,
the Chevalier began his march at the head of two thousand five
hundred selected cavalry; a part of whom were carbineers and
dragoons. Each horseman carried behind him a sack, containing
sixty pounds of powder; and each dragoon and carbineer had three
muskets, and a large quantity of gun-flints. Between nine and ten in
the evening, the band reached the barrier of the lines of
circumvallation. In front of the detachment was an officer who could
speak Dutch well, and knew all the Dutch regiments which were
employed in patrolling. On being challenged by the guard, he
unhesitatingly replied, “Open the gate quickly; I am bringing powder
to the besiegers, and am pursued by a French detachment.” The
barrier was promptly opened. Nineteen hundred of the party had
passed through, when a French officer, seeing that his men were
straggling, imprudently exclaimed, in his native language, “Close up!
close up!” This gave the alarm to the allied officers, and a fire was
opened upon the French. The powder of some of the horsemen
exploded, and sixty of them were immediately blown to pieces. The
rear of the party now took flight towards Douay; but of those who
had been fortunate enough to pass the barrier, eighteen hundred
reached Lisle, to which they brought a supply of twelve hundred
muskets and eighty thousand pounds of powder.
The well-being of an army, and the spirits of the troops during an
engagement, depend so much on the safety of their favourite
general, that any sudden rumour of his being slain would in all
probability entirely change the fortune of the day. In the event of
such a catastrophe his death has been often studiously concealed
from the main body of the troops, till it was no longer necessary or
possible to withhold such intelligence. The following instance, related
by Ward, in his Art of War, is perhaps the most remarkable, if
correctly given, for the length of time this secret was preserved.
Solyman, the Ottoman emperor, dying at the siege of Sigeth, in
Hungary, his death was cunningly concealed by Mahomet Bassa
twenty days before the Janizaries knew of it; and when any of them
inquired for him, he would show them the emperor sitting in his
horse litter, as if troubled with the gout; but the soldiers, suspecting
something, began to be mutinous, whereupon he promised that they
should see the emperor the next day, for which purpose he
apparelled the corpse in the large royal robes, and placed him in a
chair at the end of a long gallery; a little boy was placed behind, to
move the emperor’s hand, and to stroke his beard, as it seems his
manner was. Which sign of life and strength the soldiers perceiving
were well contented, so that his death was concealed for forty days
more till the siege was ended.
John Visconti, Archbishop, as well as Governor of Milan, in the
fourteenth century, was a very ambitious character, and excited the
jealousy of the pope by his show of temporal authority, and by his
aiming at becoming master of all Italy. The pope, who resided at
that time at Avignon, sent a nuncio to John Visconti, to demand the
city of Bologna, which he had purchased, and to choose whether he
would possess the spiritual or temporal power, for both could not be
united. The archbishop, after hearing the message with respect, said
he would answer it the following Sunday, at the cathedral. The day
came, and, after celebrating mass in his pontifical robes, he
advanced towards the legate, requiring him to repeat the orders of
the pope, on the choice of the spiritual or the temporal: then taking
a cross in one hand, and drawing forth a naked sword with the
other, he said, “Behold my spiritual and my temporal, and tell the
holy father from me, that with the one I will defend the other.” The
pope, not content with this answer, commenced a process, and
summoned him to appear in person, on pain of excommunication.
The archbishop received the brief, and promised to obey it; he sent
immediately to Avignon one of his secretaries, ordering him to retain
for his use all the houses and stables he could hire in Avignon, with
provisions for the subsistence of twelve thousand horse, and six
thousand foot. The secretary executed his commission so well that
the strangers, who came on business, could find no place to lodge
in. The pope, being informed of this, asked the secretary if the
archbishop required so many houses. The latter answered, that he
feared those would not be sufficient, because his master was coming
with eighteen thousand troops, besides a great number of the
inhabitants of Milan, who would accompany him. Terrified at this
account, the pope paid immediately the expense the secretary had
been at, and dismissed him, with orders to tell the archbishop, that
he dispensed with his making a journey to Avignon.
 In the wars between Edward the Third and Philip of France,
Angoulême was besieged by the Duke of Normandy. After a brave
and vigorous defence, the governor, Lord Norwich, found himself
reduced to such extremities, as obliged him to employ a stratagem,
in order to save his garrison, and prevent his being reduced to
surrender at discretion. He appeared on the walls, and desired a
parley with the Duke of Normandy. The duke told Norwich that he
supposed he intended to capitulate. “Not at all,” replied he; “but as
to-morrow is the feast of the Virgin, to whom I know that you, sir, as
well as myself, bear a great devotion, I desire a cessation of arms
for that day.” The proposal was agreed to, and Norwich, having
ordered his forces to prepare all their baggage, marched out next
day, and advanced towards the French camp. The besiegers,
imagining that they were to be attacked, ran to their arms; but
Norwich sent a messenger to the Duke, reminding him of his
engagement. The duke, who piqued himself on faithfully keeping his
word, exclaimed, “I see the governor has outwitted me, but let us be
content with gaining the place;” and the English were allowed to
pass through the besieging army unmolested.
By the following stratagem on the part of the Spaniards, in 1597,
Amiens was taken. Soldiers, disguised like peasants, conducted a
cart loaded with nuts towards the gate of the town, and let them
fall, as if accidentally, just as the gate was opened; and while the
guard was busied in gathering them up, the Spaniards entering,
secured the gate, and thus gave their countrymen the opportunity to
come up, and become masters of the town.
According to the testimony of the natives of Congo, says Mr.
Maxwell, the country of Sonia, amongst other tribes, at no great
distance of time, formed part of the kingdom of Congo, and the
people of Sonia were obliged to carry burdens of white sand, from
the beach to Banza-Congo, one hundred and fifty miles distant, to
form pleasant walks to the royal residence. This servitude greatly
exasperated the men of Sonia, whose warlike and independent spirit
is now feared and respected by all the neighbouring nations; and,
having concealed their weapons in the several burdens of sand, they
were by this contrivance enabled to avenge themselves of the
indignity put upon them, and to plunder the city, killing many of the
queen’s people. Having thus shaken off their yoke, Sonia has since
been governed by native princes.
 CHAPTER VIII.
MALINGERING, OR SIMULATION OF DISEASES.

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.
This practice has prevailed to a greater or less extent at different
periods of our medical-military history; and it is gratifying to learn,
from authentic sources, that in the present period of highly improved
discipline in the British army, there are not probably two malingerers
for ten who were found in the military hospitals thirty or forty years
since. It also occurs more or less according to the manner of forming
a regiment. In some of the cavalry regiments, and some of the
Highland and other distinguished infantry battalions, in which, along
with a mild but exact discipline, there is a strong attachment to the
service, and remarkable esprit du corps, there is scarcely an instance
of any of those disgraceful attempts to deceive the surgeon; while in
regiments which have been hastily recruited, and under
circumstances unfavourable to progressive and complete discipline,
the system of imposition is perfectly understood. Among those who
counterfeit diseases, it has been observed that the Irish are the
most numerous, the Scotsmen less so, but malingering seems least
of all the vice of English soldiers.
There appears to be a species of free-masonry among soldiers,
and thus these methods of imposture have been systematized, and
handed down for the common benefit. A case occurred of a man
having a rupture, which on inspection was found to be artificially
formed from some written directions, “How to make a rupture,”
which were produced. The man was discharged by his commanding
officer, but the discharge not being backed by the surgeon’s
recommendatory certificate, he lost his pension; the commanding
officer after his return from Corunna met this man perfectly well,
following the laborious occupation of a porter.
In the year 1804, the great increase of ophthalmia in the 50th
regiment, and the reported detection of frauds in other regiments,
led to a suspicion in the mind of the surgeon of that corps, and a
consequent investigation, by which a regular correspondence was
detected between the men under medical treatment and their
parents or friends. Those suffering from ophthalmia, within the walls
of the hospital, requested that those without would forward to them
corrosive sublimate, lime, and blue-stone; and by the application of
these acrid substances to their eyes, they hoped to get them into
such a state of disease, as would enable them to procure their
discharge, with a pension. And they mentioned the names of men
who had been successful by similar means. Proofs of guilt having
been established, the delinquents were tried by a court-martial,
convicted, and punished.
It is hardly possible to believe, that men would endure not only
the inconvenience of a severe ophthalmia, than which, perhaps,
nothing is more painful, but would even risk the total loss of sight,
for the uncertain prospect of a trifling pension, and with the
conviction, that even if they gained it, they reduced themselves to a
helpless dependence on others through life. But it is nevertheless
certain, that whole wards have been filled with soldiers labouring
under this artificially excited disease; this inflammation of the eye
having been produced, and maintained, by quicklime, strong
infusions of tobacco, Spanish flies, nitrate of silver, and other
metallic salts. The inflammation thus caused is most painful, yet it
has been kept up under every privation which can make life
miserable.
Wonderful indeed is the obstinacy some malingerers evince; night
and day, they will remain, with the endurance of a fakir, in positions
most irksome, for weeks and months; nay, many men for the same
period have, with surprising resolution and recollection, sat and
walked with their bodies bent double, without forgetting for one
moment the character of their assumed infirmity.
These impostors are most easily discovered by a retaliating
deception on the part of the surgeon; he should conceal his
suspicions, and appear to give credit to all that is related to him of
the history of the disease, and propose some sort of treatment
accordingly.
 The nervous disorders that are simulated are such as to require a
constant and unceasing watchfulness on the part of the impostor,
lest he should betray himself.
Paralysis of one arm was feigned, with great perseverance and
consistency, for months; the soldier pretending that he had fallen
asleep in the open air, and awoke with his arm benumbed and
powerless. This farce he kept up with such boldness, that, being
suspected, a court-martial was held on him, and he was even tied up
to the halberts to be punished; but the commanding officer thought
the evidence not sufficiently convincing. Having, however,
subsequently undergone very severe treatment, and there being no
prospect of a pension, he at last gave in.
The unprincipled obstinacy of some individuals even triumphs
openly in the success of their imposture. A trooper in the 12th
pretended that he had lost the use of his right arm; and, after
resisting for a great length of time severe hospital discipline, he
procured his discharge. When he was leaving the regiment, and
fairly on the top of the coach, at starting, he waved his paralytic arm
in triumph, and cheered at the success of his plan. Another soldier,
who pretended that he had lost the use of his lower extremities, was
reported unfit for service, and was discharged. When his discharge
was obtained, he caused himself, on a field day, to be taken in a cart
to the Phœnix park, and in front of the regiment, drawn up in a line,
he had the cart driven under a tree; he then leaped out of the cart,
springing up three times, insulted the regiment, and scampered off
at full speed.
A third soldier, of the name of Hollidge, pretending to be deaf and
dumb after an attack of fever, never for one moment forgot his
assumed character, till his purpose was attained. Being useful as a
tailor, he was kept for five or six years subsequent to this pretended
calamity, and carried on all communication by writing. On one
occasion, whilst practising firing with blank cartridge, an awkward
recruit shot Hollidge in the ear, who expressed pain and
consternation by a variety of contortions, but never spoke. Not
having been heard to articulate for five years, he was at last
discharged; he then recovered the use of speech, and a vacancy
occurring shortly after, he offered himself to fill the situation, namely,
as master tailor to the regiment.
That species of blindness, thus feelingly described by Milton,

“So thick a drop serene hath quenched these orbs,”

and which is that in which no manifest alteration takes place in the

eye, has been produced by the application of belladonna. Nyctalopia,
or night blindness, was frequently feigned in Egypt, and nearly half
of a corps were, or pretended to be, afflicted with it: as the troops
were employed in digging and throwing up fortifications, this state of
vision was found of not so much consequence. In transporting the
earth, a blind man was joined to, and followed by, one who could
see; and when the sentries were doubled, a blind man and one that
could see were put together, and not perhaps without advantage, as,
during the night, hearing, upon an outpost, is often of more
importance than sight.
One unprincipled wretch, in an hospital, pretending to be afflicted
with a hopeless complaint, which was a subject of offence to the
whole ward, being detected, it was determined to apply the actual
cautery. On the first application of the red-hot spatula, this fellow,
who for eleven months had lost the use of his lower limbs, gave the
man who held his leg so violent a kick, that he threw him down, and
instantly exclaimed that he was shamming, and would do his duty if
released; but the surgeon declared that he would apply the iron to
the other hip, on which he roared out that he had been shamming to
get his discharge. To the amusement of all around, he walked to his
bed; and when the burned parts were healed, he returned to his
duty.
Spitting of blood and consumption are rather favourite diseases
with soldiers who seek their discharge from the service through
imposture; yet an acute physician may easily detect the imposition.
Palpitation and violent action of the heart the impostors know how
to produce by the juice of hellebore; vomiting by secret pressure on
the stomach; tympany, or distention of the body by air, is produced
by swallowing, on philosophical and chemical principles, chalk and
vinegar.
The acute diseases have many symptoms which are easily
simulated, but as easily detected. The appearance of the white
tongue is created by rubbing it with chalk, or whitening from the
wall; but washing the mouth with water at once proves the deceit.
Dr. Hennen, in his Military Surgery, says, “Profligates have, to my
knowledge, boasted that they have often received indulgences from
the medical officers in consequence of a supposed febrile attack, by
presenting themselves after a night’s debauch, which they had
purposely protracted, to aid the deception. Febrile symptoms are
also produced by swallowing tobacco-juice. One man, if unwilling to
be cured secundum artem, was at least anxious to enumerate his
symptoms in an orthodox manner, for he had purloined some pages
from Zimmerman’s Treatise on Dysentery, (the disease he had
thought proper to simulate,) from one of the medical officers; and
from which he was daily in the habit of recounting a change of
symptoms. Stoical indifference to their frequently painful imposture
and hardihood in maintaining its character, are the necessary
qualifications of malingerers, who have frequently evinced a
constancy and fortitude under severe pain and privations worthy of a
better cause.”
A patient permitted all the preparatory measures for amputation
before he thought proper to relax his knee-joint; and another
suffered himself to be almost drowned in a deep lake, into which he
was plunged from a boat, before he stretched out his arm to save
himself by swimming, an exercise in which he was known to excel.
Those who affect deafness, are frequently caught in a snare by
opening the conversation with them in a very high tone of voice, but
gradually sinking it to its usual compass; when, thrown off his guard,
the impostor will reply to such questions as are put to him. A recruit,
unwilling to go to the East Indies, feigned deafness; he was
admitted into the hospital, and put on spoon-diet; for nine days no
notice was taken of him. On the tenth the physician, having made
signs of inquiry to him, asked the hospital sergeant what diet he was
on? the sergeant answered, “Spoon-diet.” The physician, affecting to
be angry, said, “Are you not ashamed of yourself, to have kept this
man so long on spoon-meat? the poor fellow is nearly starved; let
him have a beef-steak and a pint of porter.” Murphy could contain
himself no longer; he completely forgot his assumed defect, and,
with a face full of gratitude, cried, “God bless your honour! you are
the best gentleman I have seen for many a day.”
During the insurrection in the Kandian country, in 1818, a private
belonging to the 19th regiment was sentry at a post, and was
occasionally fired at by the enemy from the neighbouring jungle.
Availing himself of what appeared a favourable opportunity for
getting invalided and sent home, he placed the muzzle of his musket
close to the inside of his left leg, and discharging the piece, he blew
away nearly the whole of his calf. He asserted, to those who came to
his assistance, that the wound had proceeded from a shot of the
enemy’s from the jungle; but the traces of gunpowder found in the
leg, told a different tale, as well as his musket, which was recently
discharged.
A sergeant in the 62d regiment purchased a pistol, and hired a
person to shoot him through the arm; hoping, by these means, to
make it appear that he had been fired at by one disaffected to the
military, and that he should be discharged with a large pension. In
this, however, he was disappointed.
Even death itself has been simulated. When some officers, in
India, were breakfasting in the commander’s tent, the body of a
native, said to have been murdered by the sepoys, was brought in
and laid down. The crime could not be brought home to any one of
them, yet there was the body. A suspicion, however, crossed the
adjutant’s mind, and, having the kettle in his hand, a thought struck
him that he would pour a little boiling water on the body; he did so;
upon which the murdered remains started up, and scampered off.
 CHAPTER IX.
MISCELLANEOUS IMPOSTORS AND IMPOSTURES.

Mary Tofts, the Rabbit Breeder, of Godalming—Progress and Detection of her

Impostures—Poisoning of St. Andre—The Bottle Conjuror—Advertisements
on this Occasion—Riot produced by the Fraud—Squibs and Epigrams to
which it gave rise—Case of Elizabeth Canning—Violent Controversy which
arose out of it—She is found guilty of Perjury and transported—The Cock
Lane Ghost—Public Excitement occasioned by it—Detection of the Fraud—
Motive for the Imposture—The Stockwell Ghost—The Sampford Ghost—
Mystery in which the Affair was involved—Astonishing Instance of Credulity
in Perigo and his Wife—Diabolical Conduct of Mary Bateman—She is
hanged for Murder—Metamorphosis of the Chevalier d’Eon—Multifarious
Disguises of Price, the Forger—Miss Robertson—The fortunate Youth—The
Princess Olive—Caraboo—Pretended Fasting—Margaret Senfrit—Catherine
Binder—The Girl of Unna—The Osnaburg Girl—Anne Moore.

Towards the close of the year 1726, one of the most extraordinary
and impudent impostures on record was carried into execution by a
woman named Mary Tofts, the wife of a poor journeyman
clothworker at Godalming, in Surrey. She is described as having
been of “a healthy strong constitution, small size, fair complexion, a
very stupid and sullen temper, and unable to write or read.” Stupid
as she was supposed to be, she had, however, art enough to keep
up for a considerable time the credit of her fraud. She pretended to
bring forth rabbits; and she accounted for this monstrous deviation
from the laws of nature, by saying, that “as she was weeding in a
field, she saw a rabbit spring up near her, after which she ran, with
another woman that was at work just by her; this set her a longing
for rabbits, being then, as she thought, five weeks enceinte; the
other woman perceiving she was uneasy, charged her with longing
for the rabbit they could not catch, but she denied it. Soon after,
another rabbit sprung up near the same place, which she
endeavoured likewise to catch. The same night she dreamt that she
was in a field with those two rabbits in her lap, and awaked with a
sick fit, which lasted till morning; from that time, for above three
months, she had a constant and strong desire to eat rabbits, but
being very poor and indigent could not procure any.”
At first sight, it would seem that so gross an imposition, as that
which was attempted by Mary Tofts, must have been unanimously
scouted. But this was by no means the case. So well did she
manage, and so ready are some people to be deceived, that she
actually deluded her medical attendant, Mr. Howard, a man of
probity, who had practised for thirty years. There can be no doubt of
his belief that, in the course of about a month, he had aided her to
bring forth nearly twenty rabbits.
The news of these marvellous births spread far and wide, and
soon found numerous believers. It attracted the attention of even
George the First, who sent down to Godalming his house surgeon,
Mr. Ahlers, to inquire into the fact. Ahlers went back to London fully
convinced that he had obtained ocular and tangible proof of the
truth of the story; so much so, indeed, that he promised to procure
for Mary a pension. Mr. St. Andre, the king’s surgeon and anatomist,
was despatched in the course of a day or two, to make a further
examination. He also returned to the metropolis a firm believer. The
rabbits, which he and Ahlers carried with them, as testimonies, had
the honour of being dissected before his majesty. An elaborate
report of all the circumstances relative to their production and
dissection, and to his visit to Godalming, was published by St. Andre,
and the public mind consequently began to be agitated in an
extraordinary manner. A furious controversy arose between the
credulous and the incredulous, in which Whiston is said to have
borne a part, by writing a pamphlet, to show that the miracle was
the exact completion of a prophecy in Esdras. On the other hand,
the caricaturists of the incredulous faction exerted themselves to
cast ridicule on their opponents. Among these was Hogarth, who
published an engraving called Cunicularii, or the Wise Men of
Godliman.
 Though the report, by St. Andre, contained many circumstances
which were palpably calculated to excite a suspicion of fraud, the
multitude was as blind to them as he had been. The delusion
continued to spread, and even the king himself was enrolled among
the believers. The rent of rabbit warrens, it is affirmed, sunk to
nothing, as no one would presume to eat a rabbit. The trick was,
however, on the point of being found out. To Queen Caroline, then
Princess of Wales, is ascribed the merit of having been active in
promoting measures to undeceive the people.
The miraculous Mary Tofts was now brought to town, where she
could be more closely watched than at Godalming, and prevented
from obtaining the means of carrying on her imposture. Among
those who took a part on this occasion, the most conspicuous was
Sir Richard Manningham, an eminent physician and Fellow of the
Royal Society; and he had at length the satisfaction of detecting her.
She held out, however, till her courage was shaken by a threat to
perform a dangerous operation upon her, which threat was backed
by another from a magistrate, that she should be sent to prison. She
then confessed, that the fraud had been suggested to her by a
woman, who told her, that she could put her into a way of getting a
good livelihood, without being obliged to work for it as formerly, and
promised continually to supply her with rabbits, for which she was to
receive a part of the gain. The farce terminated by the Godalming
miracle-monger being committed to Tothill Fields’ Bridewell.
The reputation of St. Andre, who had previously been much in
favour at court, was greatly injured by his conduct in this affair. The
public attention had once before been directed to him by a
mysterious circumstance; and his enemies did not fail now to advert
to that circumstance, and to charge him with having himself played
the part of an impostor. It appears that in February, 1724, he was
summoned to visit a patient, whom he had never before seen. The
messenger led him in the dark, through numerous winding alleys
and passages, to a house in a court, where he found the woman for
whom he was to prescribe. The man, after having introduced him,
went out, and soon returned with three glasses of liquor on a plate,
one of which St. Andre was prevailed on to take; but, “finding the
liquor strong and ill-tasted, he drank very little of it.” Before he
reached his home he began to be ill, and soon manifested all the
symptoms of having taken poison. The government offered a reward
of two hundred pounds for the detection of the offender, but he was
never discovered. It was now asserted, by the enemies of St. Andre,
that the story of having been poisoned was a mere fabrication, for
the purpose of bringing him into practice. This, however, could not
have been the case; for the report, signed by six eminent physicians,
who attended him, abundantly proves that he was, for nearly a
fortnight, in the utmost danger, and that, according to all
appearance, his sufferings were caused by poison. We may,
therefore, conclude that, though he was an egregious dupe, with
respect to Mary Tofts, he was not, in this instance, an impostor.
“For when a man beats out his brains,
The devil’s in it if he feigns.”

In 1749, three-and-twenty years after the exposure of Mary Tofts,

there appeared, about the middle of January, the ensuing
advertisement, which seems to have been intended to try how far
the credulous folly of the town might be worked upon.
“At the new theatre in the Haymarket, on Monday next, the 16th
instant, is to be seen a person who performs the several most
surprising things following: viz. first, he takes a common walking-
cane from any of the spectators, and thereon plays the music of
every instrument now in use, and likewise sings to surprising
perfection. Secondly, he presents you with a common wine-bottle,
which any one present may first examine; this bottle is placed on a
table, in the middle of the stage, and he (without any equivocation)
goes into it, in the sight of all the spectators, and sings in it; during
his stay in the bottle, any person may handle it, and see plainly that
it does not exceed a common tavern bottle. Those on the stage or in
the boxes may come in masked habits (if agreeable to them), and
the performer (if desired) will inform them who they are.” The
display of these wonders was to occupy two hours and a half. The
advertisement also promised that the conjuror, after the
performance, would show to any gentlemen or ladies, for, as
Trapbois phrases it, a proper “con-si-de-ra-tion,” the likeness of any
deceased friend or relative, with which they might also converse;
would tell their most secret thoughts; and would give them a full
view of persons, whether dead or alive, who had injured them.
At the same time with the above advertisement, there came forth
another, which may have either been intended to put the public on
their guard by its out-heroding Herod, or to make their credulity, if
possible, still more glaring, in case they should accept the invitation
of the Bottle Conjuror. It purported to be issued by Signor Capitello
Jumpedo, lately arrived from Italy, “a surprising dwarf, no taller than
a tobacco-pipe,” who could perform many wonderful equilibres on
the tight and slack rope, transform his body into above ten thousand
different shapes and postures, and who, after having diverted the
spectators two hours and a half, would “open his mouth wide, and
jump down his own throat.” This most “wonderfullest wonder of all
wonders as ever the world wondered at,” expressed his willingness
to join in performance with the Bottle Conjuror Musician.
Though one might suppose that nothing short of insanity or idiocy
could bring spectators on such an occasion, yet it is certain that the
theatre was thronged with people of all degrees, from the highest
ranks of the peerage down to such of the humblest class as could
raise two shillings for admission to the gallery. That nothing might
be wanting to try the patience of the spectators, not a single fiddle
had been provided to amuse them. At length, tired of waiting, they
became restive; cat-calls, vociferations, and beating of feet and
sticks on the floor, were heard in discordant chorus. At this moment
a man came from behind the scenes, bowed, and announced that, if
the performer did not appear, the money should be returned. This
annunciation was succeeded by another person starting up in the
pit, and stating that, if double prices were given, the conjuror would
get into a pint bottle. This seems to have brought the multitude to
the use of the small portion of sense which nature had bestowed on
them. They discovered that they had been cheated, and they
prepared to take vengeance on the cheater. The throwing of a
lighted candle from one of the boxes into the pit was the signal for
riot. All who thought that, in such cases, the better half of valour is
discretion, now became anxious to secure their retreat. A rush
accordingly took place towards the doors, and numerous were the
wigs, hats, swords, canes, and shoes, that were lost in consequence.
As the more timid part of the crowd forced their way out, the mob
which surrounded the house forced their way in. Joined by these
allies, the party which had remained behind began, and speedily
completed the work of destruction. The benches were torn up, the
boxes pulled down; and the scenes broken to pieces; the fragments
were then taken into the street, a huge bonfire was made of them,
and the stage-curtain was hoisted on a pole, as a standard, above
the fire. The guards were at last sent for, but before their arrival the
mob had disappeared, leaving nothing but smoking embers and a
dismantled theatre.
Foote and others were accused of having originated or shared in
this trick; but they disavowed any participation in it, and there
seems no reason to doubt their veracity. Some thick-skulled bigots
gravely asserted, that it was invented by a Jesuit, “to try how ripe
the nation was to swallow the absurdities of transubstantiation.”
With more likelihood, it was said that, in order to win a wager which
he had laid respecting the extreme gullibility of the public, the
scheme was contrived by a mischievous young nobleman.
For some time after the event, the newspapers were filled with
squibs and epigrams. Among the advertisements in ridicule of the
bottle-conjuror’s, one of the best purported to be from “the body-
surgeon of the Emperor of Monœmungi.” He thus terminated the
description of his budget of wonders: “He opens the head of a
justice of peace, takes out his brains, and exchanges them for those
of a calf; the brains of a beau, for those of an ass; and the heart of
a bully, for that of a sheep; which operations render the persons
more rational and sociable creatures than ever they were in their
lives.”
 In the next instance of imposture which occurred, those who were
misled could hardly be considered as blameworthy, the
circumstances being such as to account for their erroneous
judgment. The case to which allusion is here made, was that of
Elizabeth Canning, in the year 1753. This female, who was about
eighteen years of age, after having been absent twenty-eight days,
returned home in a squalid and apparently half-starved condition.
The story which she told was that, as she was proceeding at night
from her uncle’s to the house of the person with whom she lived as
servant, she was attacked by two men, in Moorfields, who first
robbed her, gave her a blow on the temple, and then dragged her
along, she being part of the time in fits, till they reached a house of
ill-fame, kept by Susannah Wells, at Enfield Wash.
On her arrival there, she was accosted by a gipsy, named Mary
Squires, who asked her if she would “go their way; for if she would,
she should have fine clothes.” Supposing that Squires alluded to
prostitution, Canning replied in the negative; Squires, upon this,
ripped up the lace of her stays with a knife, took away the stays,
and thrust her into a back room like a hayloft, the window of which
was boarded inside. In that room she was imprisoned for twenty-
seven days; her only subsistence being a scanty portion of bread,
some water, and a small mince-pie, which she chanced to have in
her pocket. At last, she bethought her of breaking down the board,
after which she crept on a penthouse, whence she dropped on the
ground. She then made the best of her way home.
Universal pity was excited by the tale of her sufferings, and a
subscription was raised for her. The most violent public indignation
was expressed against the two criminals; and, while this ferment
was at its height, Wells and Squires were brought to trial. The
evidence of Elizabeth Canning was corroborated by that of Virtue
Hall, and by various circumstances, and the jury found both of the
prisoners guilty. Squires was condemned to death, and Wells was
ordered to be branded, and imprisoned for six months.
 Squires would certainly have suffered had not Sir Crisp Gascoyne,
who was then Lord Mayor, fortunately interposed in her favour.
Squires herself solemnly declared that she could bring many
witnesses to prove that she was in the west of England during the
whole of the time that was sworn to by Canning. There were besides
some startling discrepancies between Canning’s evidence and the
real situation of places and things; and, to render the matter still
more doubtful, Virtue Hall, the main prop of Canning’s story,
retracted her evidence. Sir Crisp Gascoyne succeeded in obtaining a
respite for Squires, during which time so much testimony was
obtained in her behalf, that a free pardon was granted to her. Such,
however, was the general prejudice in Canning’s favour, that the
benevolent exertions of Sir Crisp rendered him extremely unpopular.
Floods of ink were expended in pamphlets by her defenders, among
whom was the highly gifted author of Tom Jones. Her opponents
were equally active.
The mass of evidence against Canning at length became so
enormous, that it was resolved to put her upon her trial for perjury.
The trial lasted five days, and more than a hundred and twenty
witnesses were examined. Upwards of forty of them were brought
forward to testify as to the movements of Squires, and they traced
her journeyings day by day, and proved, by a chain of evidence of
which not a single link was wanting, that during the whole of the
time charged against her by Canning she was far distant in the west
of England. The story told by Canning was also shown to be in some
parts contradictory, and in others at variance with the facts. In
conclusion, she was found guilty, and was sentenced to seven years
transportation. In August 1754, she was conveyed to New England,
where she is said to have married advantageously. Some time before
her departure, she published a declaration in which she repeated her
charge against Squires, in spite of the triumphant manner in which
that charge had been refuted; and, blindly faithful to her cause,
many of her partisans obstinately persevered in asserting her
innocence.
 A few years subsequently to the affair of Elizabeth Canning, there
occurred an event, which amply proved that superstition and
credulity were as flourishing as ever. In January 1762 the whole
town was thrown into a state of excitement by the imposture which
bears the name of “the Cock-lane Ghost,” so called from the place
where the mummery was performed, and the supposed agent in the
performance. The scene in which the farce commenced was the
house of one Parsons, the parish clerk of St. Sepulchre’s. As a
preliminary to the proceedings, it was reported that, nearly two
years before the affair gained notoriety, alarming knockings and
scratchings had been heard by the daughter of Parsons, a girl about
twelve years old, and that she and others had seen, at her father’s
house, the apparition of a woman, surrounded by a blazing light.
The girl, on being questioned as to whom the apparition resembled,
said it was like Mrs. Kent, who had formerly been a lodger there,
and had died of the smallpox since her removal. The next step was
to throw out mysterious hints that Mrs. Kent had been murdered.
These rumours were soon spread abroad, and the credulous and
the curious rushed with headlong haste to witness the new marvels.
The knockings and scratchings had by this time become exceedingly
violent. It was now sagely resolved that several gentlemen, among
whom a clergyman acted a prominent part, should sit up by the bed-
side of Miss Parsons, to question the supposed ghost. As the ghost,
it was imagined, might be dumb, or have forgotten its native tongue,
the clergyman settled that it should reply by knocks; one knock
being an affirmative answer, and two knocks a negative. This
arrangement having been made, the ghost was interrogated, and it
replied, that it was the spirit of a woman named Kent, who had been
poisoned.
As some persons suspected imposture, the girl was removed from
her home, and was successively put to bed at several houses; the
number of watchers was increased to nearly twenty, several of
whom were clergymen and ladies. Still the knockings and scratchings
were continued, and the same answers as before were made to
questions. At length, on being pressed to give some proof of its
veracity, the ghost consented to attend one of the gentlemen into
the vault where the body was buried, and manifest its presence by a
knock upon the coffin.
When the appointed hour arrived, “the spirit was very seriously
advertised, that the person to whom the promise was made of
striking the coffin, was then about to visit the vault, and that the
performance of the promise was then claimed. The company, at one,
went into the church, and the gentleman to whom the promise was
made, went, with one more, into the vault. The spirit was solemnly
required to perform its promise, but nothing more than silence
ensued. The person supposed to be accused by the ghost then went
down, with several others, but no effect was perceived. Upon their
return they examined the girl, but could draw no confession from
her. Between two and three she desired, and was permitted, to go
home with her father.”
This want of punctuality in the ghost gave a fatal blow to its
reputation. Even the most besotted of the believers were staggered
by it. A flimsy attempt was therefore made to restore the ghost’s
credit, by asserting that the coffin and corpse had been removed,
which, of course, had prevented the spirit from giving the signal; but
on examination they were found to be safe in the vault. Stricter
precautions were now taken to guard against deception being
practised by the girl; her bed was slung like a hammock, in the
middle of the room, and she was closely watched. Driven to her last
shifts, she contrived to secrete, but not unseen, a bit of board
previously to her being put to bed, and having, as she thought,
secured the necessary materials for carrying on the trick, she
ventured to declare that she would bring the ghost at six the next
morning. In the morning she accordingly began to make the
accustomed sounds, and, on being asked if she had in the bed any
wood to strike upon, she positively denied the fact. The bed-clothes
were then opened, the board was found, and this simple process
annihilated the Cock Lane Ghost.
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