surgeons' reports MAINE SECOND DISTRICT. 173 



and severe; consequently diseases of the pulmonary organs are among tbo most common, and 

 perhaps disciualily a greater number (or military and naval service than any other disability. This 

 is attributable, undoubtedly, to the intense cold of our protracted winters, together with the sudden 

 changes of weather during the spring and autumn months. As in other i)ortious of the country, 

 we have epidemic diseases, which come and go as their legitimate causes appear or disappear. For 

 instance, during the autumn months, when decaying vegetable maiter is exhaling its miasmatic 

 poison, fevers of various types sweep over the country, sometimes with feartal havoc ; but the cause 

 residing in the malarious atmosphere, when that is purified by the ai)proaching cold of winter the 

 disease disappears, and we enjoy a respite until change of season shall again bring change in the 

 vegetable world. Not so, however, with pulmouarj' disease. There seems to be a peculiar 

 hereditary tendency in the climate to incite, as there is in the people to take on, this disease. No 

 class of persons, no occupation, trade, or profession, enjoys any immunity from it; no age or sex 

 escai)es its dreaded visits, so that it may be classed as the prevailing disease of New England. 



The general character of the people of this district, I apprehend, will compare favorably with 

 that of any other district in the State or in the country. They are sober, industrious, and frugal. 

 The district is principally agricultural, and consequently the mode of life and the occu[)ation of the 

 people will readily be understood. There are, however, manufacturing and commercial interests 

 existing to some extent; but the greater portion of our ]iopulation is engaged in agricultural pur- 

 suits. The mode of living, the occupation and habits of the people, would seem as well calculated 

 to promote health and secure long life as those of other people; nevertheless, it is comparatively a 

 rare thing to find a sound man, even in this community. As has been stated above, pulmonary 

 diseases are incident to the climate, and exhibit the largest ratio per thousand among disqualifying 

 causes. # # » 



Surgeons of enrollment-boards should not, in my judgment, be required to examine more than 

 twenty five men per day. Many of the frauds i)racticed upon surgeons amid the hurry and excite- 

 ment of fifty or sixty examinations i)er day, would be exposed were half the number only admitted. 

 The frauds practiced by drafted and enrolled men to escape, and by substitutes and enlisted men 

 to enter the army, are numerous and varied. Perhaps the most common fraud is that of feigning 

 disability. Ordinarily, the surgeon would discover the imposition thus attempted to be practiced 

 ui)on him; but, when it is backed up ami fortified by certificates from respectable members of the 

 medical profession, the imposition is not suspected, and some, no doubt, have thus wrongfully 

 escaped. I have for the ])ast year excluded all documentary evidence in such cases, and have 

 endeavored to judge of the physical ability of the man from jn'isonal examination alone. The 

 kindly disposition of medical men, together with their fear of offending, forbids their withholding 

 certificates when requested to give them ; and it is difficult for the examiningsurgeou to override 

 these (certificates, many of them having been given under the sanctity of an oath. But it is more 

 to be feared, perhaps, that unfit men should insinuate themselves into the army than that fit ones 

 should escape it. 



The tempting bounties offered and paid by Government to such as would voluntarily aid in 

 this noble work of defending and preserving it, have induced unprincipled and unscrupulous men 

 to resort to every scheme that offered a chance of success. The greatest difficulty, however, has 

 been experienced in the examination of substitutes. Enlisted men, as a general thing, are those 

 from among us with v.hose olijects as well as abilities we are acquainted. Not so with substitutes, 

 however; they are generally foreigners, worthless as soldiers, truthless as men, and sometimes a 

 curse to the world. # # ♦ 



So far as my experience and observation go, T am inclined to the belief that the colored race 

 leads off as to physical qualifications for the military service. They are generally of a straight, 

 soldier-like appearance; their habits of lile have been such as to inure them to exposure; and there 

 is less sensibility and refinement among them than we find in the white race, while there is just 

 animal enough about them to make good soldiers. * * » 



Jn relation to the enrollment-law as it now exists, I have a word to say. It were impossible, 

 perhai)s, to frame a law to suit all ; but the present enrolbnent law, it seems to me, possesses all that 

 is needed, except in the matter of the substitute clause. The system of substituting, it seems to 

 me, is wrong in principle and mischievous in practice. 1 respectfully suggest whether it would not 



