LXXVI INTRODUCTORY. 



service. The result of these inqmries appeared in 1869 in a volume pubhshed by 

 that association.^ 



The records given therein of the age, nativity, and height of enlisted men attain 

 the large total of 1,232,256 ; the observations of complexion and color of hair and 

 eyes amount to 668,000. These data, however, were not obtained by actual inspec- 

 tion or measurement on the part of the officers of the commission, but were copied 

 from the muster-rolls in possession of the adjutants-general of the diiferent States, so 

 that the only guarantee which the Sanitary Commission can furnish with regard to 

 them is as to the accuracy with which the copying and summing up have been per- 

 formed. In estimating the value of these State records, it should be remembered that all 

 muster-rolls of volunteers prepared early in the war are liable to grave suspicion on 

 the ground of trustworthiness. Inquiries made of regimental surgeons and of officers 

 engaged in organizing and recruiting have led to the unavoidable conclusion that, in 

 the great majority of cases, the height was hastily guessed at, or set down from the 

 man's own statement; and that the age and nativity were often misstated The color 

 of hair and eyes, even, sti-ange as it may seem, was often the subject of gross inaccu- 

 racy. It may be observed in this connection that the work in question preserves the 

 mistake of tabulating gray hair separately. Gray is the faded tint common to all 

 colors of hair, and has by itself no anthropological significance. The instances of 

 gray hair should have been assigned to the columns of the original colors when possi- 

 ble, or otherwise omitted from the table. As pertaining to vital statistics, tables of 

 gray hair, or of baldness, in relation to age, occupation, or disease, would have had a 

 sejoarate and special value. 



The measurements actually made by the agents of the Sanitary Commission, and 

 which consequently form the most valuable part of the work, consist of 23,624 records 

 of Aveight, 19,748 tests by the dynamometer, 18,781 measurements of tlie girth of 

 chest, and other dimensions, as of the head, waist, length of limbs, &c. ; with some 

 valuable statistics of pulsation, respiration, pulmonary capacity, and vision in about 

 10,000 cases. These very valuable data appear to have been collected in a pains- 

 taking and conscientious manner, and they constitute an important store-house of facts 

 for reference and comi^arison.^ 



Mr. E. B. Elliott, the first actuary of the Sanitary Commission, and well known as 

 an exjierienced statistician, contributed a valuable paper at the fifth session of the 

 International Statistical Congress at Berlin, in 1863, exhibiting some of the early 

 results ot the statistics gathered for the commission.^ It comprises the general rates 

 of mortality in the volunteer army, with comparison as to locality and with other 



^Investigations in the miUtarij and anthropolopical statistics of American «o?die)-«, by B. A. Gould, published for the 

 United States Sanitary Commission, 8vo, New York, 1869. 



-Mr. Gould lias been led iuto an erroneous statement when speaking of the statistics of chest-measurement 

 which were contained in the first part of this work, published in the Provost-Marshal-Gonorars Report of 18(i6. Ho 

 says, (op. cit., p. a()4 :) " In these examinations by the medical otlieers of the Provost-Marshal-General's Bureau, it is not 

 st.ated at what |)art of the chest the nusasurement was m.ade." In the introduction to the medical part of that report, 

 a full and precise description was given of the manner in wliicb the examination of the men was conducted by tho 

 enrolling surgeon. It is there stated that the recruit, dircitni of all clothing, was " placed under a stationary measuriug- 

 rod, directed to stand erect, while his heiglit w!.s accurately noted, and a graduated tape was passed around the chest 

 orer the inferior (ingles of the scapulas and directly over the nipples, and tho measurement taken both at inspiration and 

 expiration."— (Fi«ni Heportof the Prorost-Marshal-General, 1866, p. 243.) 



= On the military statistics of the United Stales of America, by E. B. Elliott, -Ito, Berlin, 1S63. 



