180 surgeons' reports NEW HAMPSHIRE — FIRST DISTRICT. 



changes. Tbe causes of exemption are sufficiently full and explicit, as it would now seem, tliougU 

 peiba[»s fuller and more extended exi)erieuce might suggest" some slight moditications. * * • 



By a course of examination as thorough and complete as it should be made, one surgeon can 

 examine not more than thirty men per day. * * * 



The frauds against which the examiuing-offlcer has to guard are as various as the4emperaments 

 and characters of the persons examined, and no set rules can be given to govern in such matters. 

 To guard successfully against these frauds, the otlicer should be thoroughly conversant with all 

 the twistings and turnings and idiosyncrasies of huinan nature, and be possessed of a practical 

 ability to turn his knowledge to account. * * * 



My exi)erience hardly entitles jue to express an opinion as to what nationality is physically 

 best fitted for military service. The major part of those who have passed under my scrutiny are of 

 our own nationality, while those of others have been, perhaps, hardly fair samples of their class, 

 being substitutes, who would naturally be selected, bifore examination, as the best of their kind. 

 From such experience as I have had, and from comparison of that experience with all the statistics 

 upon the subject pertaining to other nations which 1 have been able to obtain, 1 incline to the opin- 

 ion that the American race at least equals, if it does not excel, any other in physical aptitude for 

 such service. # * * 



My views in regard to the enrollment-law, as it now exists, are very favorable. In its direct 

 and indirect workings it seems well adapted to subserve the purposes for which it was framed. 



A. J. BILLINGS, 

 Hunjeon Board of Enrollment Fifth JJistrict of Maine. 



Belfast, Me., Jiaie 1, 18Go. 



NEW HAMPSHIRE— FIRST DISTRICT. 

 Extracts from report of Dr. J. F. Hall. 



* * * I have been surgeon of the board of enrollment of the first district of New 



Hampshire xluring the entire period of its existence — two years and one month. I myself have ex- 

 amined most of the men jjresented for physical examination at this ofBce, and have witnessed nearly 

 all the examinations made by my assistant. The whole number of drafted men, volunteers, and 

 substitutes so examined is about ten thousand. # # # jujjg ,iistrj^t embraces 



the southern and eastern portions of the State, commencing upon the seaboard, and thence border- 

 ing on the State of Maine, running north about one hundred miles to near the base of the White 

 Mountains. It contains the counties of Rockingham, Strafford, Belknap, and Carroll. The south- 

 ern portion of the district is somewhat level ; the middle and northern portions are broken and 

 mountainous. It has nearly every variety of soil: the cold rock soil of the mountaintoi) and 

 slopes, the moist, warm rocky soil of the wide-spreading hill-sides, the rich, dark loam soil of the 

 bottom-lands upon the rivers, and the sandy soil ot the plains. 



• The inhabitants of the district enjoy in a large degree the blessings of good water and pure 

 and salubrious air. They will compare favorably with those of any other locality in habits of 

 sobriety, temperance, industry, and morality. They are frugal in their modes of living and emi- 

 nently utilitarian in their labors. A large portion of them are laborers or cultivators of the soil. 

 The remaining portion are operatives in cotton or woolen mills and shoeinanufactories ; also, 

 laborers in almost every branch of the mechanical arts, with the usual relative proportion of the 

 ditierent professions. There is still another class quite too large, the gentlemanly and ungentle-' 

 manly " /ort/crs." 



There is a great difference in the amount of sickness during the different months of the year. 

 The steady cold bracing air of January and February is usually attended with little sickness, while 

 with the warm and more changeable months of INIarch and April, with the daminiess occasioned 

 by the melting snow, there is frequent influenza, i)neumonia, inflammation of the throat, and acute 

 rheumatism. The months of May, June, and July are comparatively healthy, the most commoa 

 sickness being a mild form of bilious fever. 



There is again more sickness in August and September, principally enteric or typhoid fever, 

 ty])lius fever, and dysentery. These mouths aiford more professional business to the practicing 



