SUROKONs' REPORTS MAINE FIFTH DISTRICT. 179 



jnesonts liimself for ciilistiuerit, kiiowiaj;- that lie lias a disriaalityiiij,' iiiUniiity, say epilepsy, which, 

 as he calculates, will eiialile hitu to get his discharge very soon after seeming the large bounty? 

 The drafted man who gets exempted by fraud, this law recognizes as a di'serter, and liable to be 

 ])unished as such ; and shall he who endeavors to do tiie Government a gieater wrong go uupnn- 

 i,heu 1 Even if he does not succeed, be intended to; and, if this can be done with impunity, others 

 in like circumstances, and perhaps worse, there being nothing to deter, will make the attempt and 

 be successful. 



Tliere are other persons, who, although able-bodied, endeavor to get into the service solely for 

 the sake of the bounties, and then intend, by feigning sickness, to get out at the earliest practicable 

 moment. How many sin(!e the commencement of the late rebellion have played this game over 

 and over again ! Wiienever such cases come to be known — and now and then one will come to 

 IJMlit — ijustice demands that these offenders be severely punished. It should be clearly understood 

 that this species of fraud will receive, as it deserves, speedy retribution, and the penalty should be 

 of such a character as to make " bounty -juniijers" scarce in every community. 



SUMNEll A. PATTEN, 

 Surgeon of Board of Enrollment Fourth District of Maine. 



Bangok, Me., June G, 18Gj. 



MAINE— EIFTE DISTRICT. 

 Extracts from report of Dr. A. J. Billings. 



My experience in the examination of men with reference to their fitness for military service 

 dates back to the organization of the Nineteenth Regiment Maine Volunteers, in August, 1S(>2, of 

 which regiment I was appointed surgeon, and, as such, examine<l all the recruits presented for enlist- 

 ment therein ui) to and including the date of its organization. * * * I have ex- 

 amined altogether, as nearly as can now be ascertained, about .3,200 men. 



The fifth congressional district of Maine comprises the three entire counties of Washington, 

 Hancock, and Waldo, and those, towns of Knox Ciuuty which lie along the shores of Penobscot 

 B;iy. It has an extent of sea coast, on an airline, of nearly one hundred aiul tifty nnles, or con- 

 siderably more than one half of the entire coast-line of the State, and is intersected by numerous^ 

 inlets and bays, some of them of considerable extent. Along this coastline are scattered numerous 

 islands, some of them i;outaiuing two or three incorporated towns. On its eastern boundary, it has 

 a frontier line of nearly a hundretl miles in length. The northern aiul eastern portion of the dis- 

 trict, nearly one-third of its entire area, is still nearly in its primitive state of wilderness, with only 

 liere and there the camp of the lumberman or the solitary settler's logcabiu. The inhabitants 

 belong chiefly to the industrial classes. Farmers and seamen, in about eipial proportion, make up 

 con.siderably more than one-half of the entire population, while, perhaps, a tilth is about equally 

 divided between mechanics and lumbermen. Hence, it will at once be inferred, that they are a 

 hard-working, hard-faring peiii)le, frugal, honest, intelligent, and independent. Among a people 

 like this we should naturally expect to find the most prevalent diseases to be those of a constitu- 

 tional and hereditary character, and those superinduced by the local causes arising Ironi occu|)ation 

 and climate; and sucth proves to be the case. The most common diseases are tbund to be those of 

 a pulmonary nature, the hereditary tendency to which prevails throughout New England, and is 

 here aggravated by exposure to those climatic vicissitudes and changes to which the occupations 

 and modes of life render the inhabitants peculiarly exposed. 



The greater ratio per thousand of those exempted has been for orgainc diseases of the internal 

 organs, chiefly the lungs; and, nextly, for dislocations and injuries to the limbs; the ratio in each 

 case being very nearly the same. For the first of these results I have already accounted above, and 

 the second can be explained in a similar iranner. So large a jwrtion of those examined being 

 engaged in various seafaring pursuits, or as mechanics or lumbermen, they necessarily expose 

 themselves to a variety of accidents productive of injuries and dislocations. 



The workings of paragrai)li 8.1, Revised Rsgulatious, as far as my experience extends, have 

 generally been satisfactory, so much so that I do not deem it necessary to suggest any radical 



