64 MILITARY APTITUDE FALLACY OF STATISTICS. 



If some of the returns uyion which this rate of aptitude for nilhtary life is deter- 

 mined be closely scrutinized, an additional source of irregularity is discernible in the 

 varying- severity with which the regulations happen to be enforced. For example, 

 the statistics of recruiting in tlie department of the Moselle, from 1834 to 1866, exhibit, dur- 

 ing the five years from ISoU to 1864, an enormous increase in the proportion of exeilip- 

 tions for disease. It appears that this was owing to the rigid supervision of the prefect of 

 that period, an austere magistrate, Avho was resolved that the quota from his department 

 should consist only of able-bodied men. During these five yeai's, however, the rejec- 

 tions for deficient height diminished ; the reason probabl}^ being that the unusually 

 large number of cases of disease carried with them an increased proportion of shorter 

 men ^ Such fortuitous increase or decrease of the exemptions according to the rigor 

 exercised by the authorities must necessarily vary the rate of aptitude, and other records 

 sh(^>w very plainly the effect of the pressure of actual war M. Bertrand has published 

 an article upon recruiting in the department of the Cher, giving the results from 1838 

 to 1862.- For tlie three years from 185 1 to 1853, the military aptitude varies but little, 

 the mean being 545; but in 1854 it suddenly rises to 624; the next year to 652; and to 

 620 in 1856. These three years comprise the period of the war with Russia, and the 

 need for men was urgent and continual, to replace the heavy losses in the Crimea by 

 battle and disease. In 1 857, the rate drops again ; but, in 1 859, it remounts to the highest 



cine, iviiorted in Bull. <le I'Avad. dc niAl., t. xxxii, ])i). 570, 5'J'i, 797, 815.) These causes are not ditiiciilt to discover, if the 

 official statistics be consulted. The general infertility of marriage, and the enormous mortality among infants, are 

 chiefly responsible. In no part of Europe is the expectation of life for the first year of existence at so low a rate as it 

 IS in France. Co-operating with the causes named is the withdrawal, year after year, of 100,000 able-bodied young meu 

 for service iii the army. Bert illon has forcibly shown the disastrous eti'ects of this military celibacy during the most vig- 

 orous years of manhood, the direct consequence of which is that those who remain in their homes to marry and pro- 

 create children are, to a large extent, the meu who have been rejected for deficieut size, or for physical iuflrmity. lu 

 the 22^ years from .June, 1791, to November, 1813, 4,550,000 men were conscripted for the army in France, so that 200,000 

 men were every year of that period practically withdrawn from marriage, {Lcre'e' militaiirs failift en France, par Gkhmain 

 Sa1!UT, Recueil de m<5m. de ni^'d., chir. et pharm. uiil.,3 sdr., t. xviii, p. 68, Paris, 1867.) In the re-orga.nization of the 

 French army, by the act of June, 1872, great eft'orts were made to lessen this icstraint upou marriage. The term of 

 active service "under the flag" is reduced to five years, after which the soldier, relegated to Xhit first reserve, is at liberty 

 to marry. 



M. Ely is of opinion that the influence of the conscription upon the low rate of natality has been exaggerated, 

 and that the six or seven years' active service only retards marriage, without diminishing it, {Uarmee et la impulation.) 

 An acute English observer, however, after careful investigation, has recorded it as his opinion that the system is fully 

 responsible for the evil attributed to it. He points out, as a compensating feature, the return every year, into civil life, 

 of nearly. 100,000 men, imiu-essed with the discipline and spirit of the army, (The military rtsources of Prussia and 

 France, and recent changes in the art of war, by Lieut. Col. Chesney and Henhy Rkeves, esq., 12mo, London, 1870, p. 152.) 

 The number of soldiers to every hundred of the population, in time of peace, in some European states, is thus given by 

 Legoyt : 



Bavaria 8, 44 



Austria 2. 12 



Prussia _ 1.45 



France 1. 41 



Spain L23 



Belgium 0.80 



Holland : 0.75 



England 0.66 



If the calculation be applied to the United States, on the basis of the standing army and census of 1870, tho 

 pioportiou is 0.095. 



'Jiludes atalisligues sur k recrntcmeiil dans le ddpartcmir.t dc la Mvstlh. \>;>r M. RiciiON, Recueil do m^m. de m^d.. 

 rhir. et pharm. mil., 3 s(Sr., t. xxiii,p. 97, Paris, 1869. 



- £lniUs slatisliques snr h recrutcmcnt dans le deparlement dn Cher, par M Heciou BEirrnANi), Recueil de m^m. de 

 m6d., chir. et pharm. mil., 3 s<5r., t. xxii, p. 467, Paris. 1866 



