GEOGRAPHICAL VARIATIONS IN THE CAUSES 



OF REJECTIONS 



Most valuable for practical purposes is the analysis of the German 

 recruiting statistics according to causes of rejection by army corps, 

 which broadly correspond to the principal geographical and topo- 

 graphical divisions of the Empire. These statistics indicate with 

 approximate accuracy the local excessive incidence of physical or other 

 impairments sufficiently serious to cause the final rejection of recruits 

 for military service. Thus, for illustration, in the ratio of rejections 

 for diseases of the lungs during the period 1904-08 the maximum rate 

 was 20.8 per 1,000 for the 55th Brigade of the 14th Army Corps, 

 whereas the minimum rate was only 3.8 per 1,000 for the 21st Brigade 

 of the 6th Army Corps (Prussia). For flatfoot the rejection rate 

 varied between a maximum of 44.6 per 1,000 in the 33rd Brigade of 

 the 9th Army Corps to a minimum of only 6.2 per 1,000 for the 45th 

 Brigade of the 12th Army Corps (Saxony). For goitre the rejection 

 rate varied between non-occurrence in the 35th Brigade of the 9th 

 Army Corps to a maximum of 23.2 per 1,000 in the 4th Brigade of the 

 1st Army Corps (Bavaria). When shown in graphic form these rates 

 of rejection according to locality furnish evidence of exceptional value 

 in the practical furtherance of public health movements, suggestive of 

 the urgency of highly specialized local inquiries regarding underlying 

 causative or contributory conditions or circumstances possibly within 

 the range of prevention and control. To be scientifically conclusive it, 

 however, is necessary that the rejection rates should be calculated ac- 

 cording to the place of birth or at least the usual or prolonged residence 

 of the examined recruit rather than according to the recruiting locality, 

 which might have no bearing upon the causative conditions or circum- 

 stances responsible for the frequency of certain defects and deficiencies, 

 such as goitre,, flatfoot, etc. To ignore racial antecedents in recruiting 

 statistics is as certain as in mortality statistics to lead to seriously 

 erroneous results; for. broad general averages derived from a hetero- 

 geneous group of persons examined cannot possibly serve as a standard 

 properly applicable to widely varying constituent parts. 



RECRUITING STATISTICS OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY 

 No country illustrates the importance of racial consideration more 

 conclusively than the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. The statistics 

 available are neither for very recent years nor in such detail as to 

 justify their use in comparison with the returns for adjacent European 

 countries. The tendency has been apparently towards a diminution in 

 the proportions rejected on account of deficiency in stature and a 

 lesser proportion of recruits of short stature and a larger proportion of 

 those above the average- in height according to age. The rejection rates 

 by causes are based upon the numbers examined above the minimum 



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