medical portion as made by the medical officer without an explanation 

 in detail as to the limitations of the functions of the former and the 

 full authority of the latter, especially as regards a review of evidence 

 more or less medical, although obtained by a non-medical officer of the 

 line. The instructions to the medical officer are merely amplified in 

 important matters of detail, but in a general way conform to most of 

 the essential requirements as regards the non-medical physical examina- 

 tion of the recruit by an officer of the line. With reference to the 

 medical examiner, however, it is suggested that use be made of ''every 

 possible diagnostic procedure at his disposal, including the use of the 

 microscope, the X-ray, and other laboratory methods, for the .determina- 

 tion of doubtful cases, and he may admit such cases to a hospital for 

 study and observation for a reasonable period in order that a definite 

 conclusion may be reached with regard to them." 



Diseases, injuries, malformations and other physical defects dis- 

 qualifying for military service are briefly enumerated as follows : 



A superficial examination of many applicants determines the fact of their 

 unfitness ; they are undersized, underweight, undeveloped, sallow, or pale and 

 scrawny, poorly nourished, with thin, flabby muscles, and are manifestly lacking 

 in stamina and resistance to disease. The rejection of such applicants for "poor 

 physique" is not sufficiently exact, and the medical examiner should record as 

 the disqualifying cause in each case some specific pathological condition, if 

 such can be found, or "underweight," "deficient chest measurement," "deficient 

 muscular development," "deficient nutrition," or such other definite disqualifying 

 conditions as may be found to exist. Obesity is a cause for rejection when so 

 marked as to interfere with marching or other military duties. 



OBSCURE EVIDENCES OF PHYSICAL MATURITY 



The indicated physical evidences of maturity for the guidance of 

 medical officers are quite superficial and inconclusive. It has been 

 properly pointed out by Sir William Aitken that "All the parts of the 

 organization of man are connected or correlated together so that with 

 the increase or decrease of the whole body, or any particular part of 

 it, certain organs are also increased or diminished or modified; and 

 modifications which arise during the earlier stages of growth tend to 

 cause the subsequent development of the whole man." A much more 

 qualified and extended review of this important aspect of the medical 

 examination is given by Munson in his treatise on Military Hygiene, 

 in part as follows : 



From the standpoint of developmental anatomy the soldier should certainly not 

 be enlisted before the age of twenty-one years, and a delay of an additional 

 twelve months would not be undesirable. At eighteen years the bones are not 

 fully formed and their actual growth continues until the twenty-fifth year, 

 osseous development preserving a distinct and definite sequence. The epiphyses 

 of the transverse and spinous processes of the vertebrae hardly commence to 

 ossify before sixteen years of age, and it is not until after twenty years that 

 the two thin circular plates form on the bodies of the vertebrae, while the 

 whole process is not completed until the thirtieth year. The sacrum commences 

 to consolidate at the eighteenth year and the process is completed from the 



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