62 MILITARY APTITUDE. 



The relatioUvS of complexion tt> the important qualities of" height and girth of chest 

 have been ah-eady discussed and exhibited.' 



MiLiTAEY APTITUDE. — MiHtary aptitude, aptitude militalre, krieffstiichtif/keit, is the 

 union of all the conditions of admissibility into military service From 1,000 recruits 

 or conscripts, for example, must be deducted, first, the numbei' exempted for deficient 

 height, and, secondly, the number exempted for such infirmities as are held b}- law to 

 be disqualifying. The number remaining will indicate the military aptitude, or rate 

 per thousand, of available men. This manner of estimating the capacit}- of the nation 

 for war has been much employed by European writers, and taljles exhibiting the 

 militaiy aptitude of the chief nations of Europe are to be found in the works of Boudin, 

 Legoyt, and others; and reference to the conclusions announced in them, as though 

 unquestionably authoritative, are common in the writings and debates of scientific men. 



It is obvious that this quality cannot be fairly compared unless the conditions 

 under which the data are obtained are reasonably similar. It is only among nations 

 where military service is a debt due to the state that the comparison is possible; for 

 volunteers, and recruits obtained by ordinary enlistment, are, to a great extent, selected 

 men, and the pro|)ortion of them accepted could not be considered as representing the 

 military aptitude of the nation. Taking into consideration, then, those nations on the 

 continent of Europe with whom a conscription is an annual proceeding, conducted 

 with regularity, and affecting all those young men who have attained the age of 

 liability since the previous draft, what are the conditions requisite for the compar- 

 ison ? In the first place, the limit of stature must be identical ; for it is obvious that 

 a reduced nnnimum of stature will admit a larger number of men. The age of liability 

 must be the same. In Prussia, for example, more young men are likely to be exempted 

 for deficient height, or lack of physical developmenl, at 19 years of age, than will be 

 the case in France, where the conscript is required to have passed his twentieth year. 

 Growth at neither of these years is complete. The list of disqualifying diseases must 

 be uniform ; and a similarity should prevail in the instructions as to the def/ree of 

 infirmity that is to entitle the man to exemption from all military service And, lastly, 

 it is necessary that examining surgeons and councils of revision should everywhere 

 enforce the regulations with equal rigor and impartiality. The laws and customs which 

 govern recruiting in the principal states of Europe have been so extensively treated of 

 in the introduction to this work that it is suflicient merely to refer to those pages, and 

 to say in this place that the uniformity of conditions laid down as necessary are not 

 to be found in the regulations there described. The age of liability, the minimum 

 limit of stature, the disqualifying diseases and the gradation of the same, all differ, 

 nioi-e or less. In more than one state, a class of partially infirm recruits is ever}' year 

 admitted as a portion of the contingent, and, if not separated from the calculation, 

 would, of cour.se, increase the apparent aptitude. 



Boiulin long since declared that there was no actual relation (solidarite) between 

 stature and the (pudity in (piestion;- and, in a letter written to the Academy of Medi- 

 cine, during his last illness, that eminent man refers again to this supposed relation, and 



'See ante, pp. 24 and 37. 



^Utiulex ilhnologiques siir la taille et Ic }>oiih ric I'liommr, Recueil <ies ui<^ui. «lo uidd., chir. ot pbarni. mil., 3 B6r., t. ix, 

 p. 109. 



