hearing accounted for 5.94 per cent, of the total rejections, it appears 

 that 36.12 per cent, of all the rejections were due to defects or 

 deficiencies of the eye, the ear and the teeth. How far these defects 

 are remediable is, of course, an important question, but certainly no 

 alarming assertions are justified regarding national physical deteriora- 

 tion as disclosed by this very limited basis of exact information for 

 a relatively small proportion of the men examined under the Selective 

 Service Draft. , 



A further examination of the details, in fact, affords much ground 

 for satisfaction and evidence that the physical condition of the young 

 men examined was indeed in many respects a remarkably satisfactory 

 one. Out of 10,258 men only 79, or 0.77 per cent., were rejected on 

 account of alcoholism and drug habits. The proportion rejected for 

 venereal diseases was 4.27, which is high, but not excessive. Physical 

 underdevelopment accounted for 4.06 per cent, of the total rejections, 

 aside from 1.59 per cent, for underweight. More important are the 

 rejections for tuberculosis, or 5.37 per cent, of the total, and for non- 

 tuberculous respiratory diseases, or 1.56 per cent. Heart diseases are 

 represented by 5.87 per cent, and nervous disorders, general and local, 

 by 3.77 per cent., aside from 4.53 per cent, for mental deficiency. 

 There is nothing alarming in these figures, which, of course, require 

 to be used for practical purposes with extreme caution. Erroneous con- 

 clusions might easily be drawn from the fact, for illustration, that rejec- 

 tions for hernia are represented by 7.47 per cent, of the total ; but under 

 the new rules and regulations of the Provost-Marshal General's office 

 the ratio of rejections on this account will be very much reduced. The 

 same conclusion applies to flatfoot, which accounts for a rejection 

 proportion of 3.65 per cent., but which under the revised rules will be 

 reduced to a much smaller proportion. 



In other words, it is largely a question of rules and regulations rather 

 than of physical facts and conditions. The very term "physical rejec- 

 tions" as used in the Provost-Marshal General's report is a rather 

 misleading one, since there are included a considerable proportion of 

 causes which are not physical in a strict sense, but pathological, or so 

 ill-defined or not specified as not to permit of being classified or 

 precisely stated. 



IMPORTANT CHANGES IN RULES AND REGULATIONS 



The original rules and regulations governing the physical examina- 

 tion of recruits or conscripts under the Selective Service Law were 

 promulgated by the Secretary of War under date of November 8, 1917. 

 These rules have been materially modified by the revised regulations 

 of the office of the Provost-Marshal General, made public under date 

 of January 28, 1918. The modifications have practically all been 

 decidedly in the direction of a lesser degree of exact conformity to 



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