76 ILLINOIS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 



by inference therefore, to the arms of the other nations 

 as well/ 



As a matter of fact, the later, more authentic reports 

 on the French situation developed the fact that the num- 

 ber of soldiers discharged from the French army from 

 August 2, 1914, to October 31, 1917,- was 89,430. Of these 

 70,196 were discharged previous to March 1, 1916, and 

 largely represent pre-existent cases of tuberculosis 

 caught into the army by the urgently rapid mobilization. 



These cases constituted about 1.75 per cent. After 

 these early cases were eliminated the percentage fell to 

 .63 per cent, which is about the same as was later found 

 in the Italian army where Sforga in charge of the diag- 

 nostic tuberculosis center of Rome, relates that the call 

 to arms poured the entire male tuberculosis morbidity 

 of the country into the army. Thus we were all led to be- 

 lieve that the high tuberculosis incidence among soldiers 

 was due to the war, and that tuberculosis was rapidly 

 increasing. 



In the mobilization of the American army^ the draft 

 boards rejected 69,935 men for tuberculosis. The army 

 surgeons afterward rejected 14,967 men who had been 

 passed by the local draft boards, or a total of 84,903. It 

 therefore appears that as the result of the careful med- 

 ical examinations of our draft boards and army surgeons* 

 tuberculosis was 13 times more prevalent among civilians 

 than among soldiers. Instead of army life increasing 

 the incidence of tuberculosis and returning our boys from 

 France a menace to their communities, the army life 

 really diminished the hazards from tuberculosis^ so that 



^ Tuberculosis Among European Nations at War, by James Alexander 

 Miller in the American Review of Tuberculosis, August, 1919. 



2 Tuberculosis Among European Nations at War, by James Alexander 

 Miller in the American Review of Tuberculosis, August, 1019. 



3 The Present Status of Soldiers and Draft Rejects with Tuberculosis, 

 by William IH. Baldwin in the American Review of Tuberculosis, August, 

 1919. 



* Victor C. Vaughn and George T. Palmer in The Journal of Labora- 

 tory and Clinical Medicine, July, 1919. 



= Tuberculosis Among European Nations at War, by James Alexander 

 Miller in the American Review of Tuberculosis, August. 1919. 



The Army in Relation to the Tuberculosis Problem, by Col. G. B. 

 Bushnell in J. A. M. A., June 15, 1918. 



The Present Status of Soldiers and Draft Rejects with Tuberculosis, 

 by William H. Baldwin, American Review of Tuberculosis. August, 1919. 



