44 MOBILITY OF CHEST VARIATIONS. 



There is no doubt that if the mobihty of the chest be very hmited, such a condi- 

 tion should be regarded as a disqualification for military service. Hutchinson consid- 

 ered three inches to be the healthy mean expansion, and he records one case in which 

 it reached 64 inches with a vital capacity of 300 cubic inches.^ Gould speaks of six 

 white soldiers in whom the expansion was over 7 inches." Our records exhibit many 

 instances of expansion of chest reaching to 7 inches; in one case, in which it attained 

 to 6| inches, the circumference of chest was 33 inches and 39| inches, respectively. 

 The subject was a native of New Brunswick; his height was h feet 10 inches, and his 

 weight 162 pounds ; he was exempted for inguinal hernia. It may be observed as 

 something moi'e than a mere coincidence that in a number of cases of rejection for her- 

 nia an unusual degree of mobility of chest was found to co-exist. A remarkable instance 

 of great expansive power of chest in a man below the medium height was observed in 

 a native of New Jersey. He was 18 years of age, weighed 114 poimds, and was 64 

 inches in height ; his chest at expiration measured 29 inches in girth and had an expan- 

 sion of seven inches. He was accepted for service. Five men are recorded from one dis- 

 trict as displaying a mobility of 6^ inches ; their mean age was 32 years, height 64.83 

 inches, girth of chest at expiration 30.42 inches, and weight 127 pounds. Four of the 

 number were rejected for hernia. 



Of eight men, with a mobility of 6 inches, the following are the mean particulars : 

 height 66.38 inches, age 24.37 years, weight 143.63 pounds, and girth of chest at expi- 

 ration 32.62 inches. These men were all accepted for service. 



Among the cases of very limited mobility was that of a man who was 65J inches 

 in height and 125 pounds in weight ; his chest measured 32 inches at expiration, with 

 an expansion of hardly half an inch. He was not rejected for any organic disqualifica- 

 tion, but for "shortening of right leg." There are, as might be supposed, many cases 

 recorded of thoracic disease, in which the power of expansion did not exceed three- 

 quarters or even half of an inch. It seems that one inch was not considered to be so 

 small an expansion as to war-rant exemption, for in one district seven men were accepted 

 possessing only that mobility. Their mean age was 35.14 years, height 68.47 inches, 

 weight 126.42 pounds, and girth of chest at expiration 33.35 inches. 



The mean expansion in the largest number of observations in this woi*k is 3.08 

 inches. The following tables exhibit the mean expansion of chest, first by nativities, 

 and next by States of the Union ; in each instance showing its relation to height and 

 circumference of chest also. 



'Op. «'«., p. 222. ^Investigations, p. 495. 



