SUKGEONS' REPORTS NEW HAMPSHIRE — THIRD DISTRICT. 189 



course of tlie exiimiiiation. I have reason to bi^licve that no one in this district has escaped the 

 draft by these lueaus; for, if I have erred at all, it has been in hoidiiij; to service conscripts who 

 liave claimed this disability. I cannot think that any intelligent surgeon needs to be warned 

 against the particular fiauds likely to be prai;ticed, and esi)ecially if ho adoi»t the same rule that I 

 have followed during my whole professional life, viz, " See with your own eyes, feel with your own 

 liugers, and judge with your own judgment." 



Among voluuteers and substitutes, we find all the frauds that the villainous ingenuity of the 

 broker can suggest. We have false teeth and colored hair; legs bandaged for weeks to conceal 

 varicose veins, aiul a free use of chalk and paint to eouceal old scars and syphilitic cicatrices. Boys, 

 with hairless pubes, lie about their youth, and old men, with thin legs and [)eudulous bellies, about 

 their age. Drafted men assert that they were born sick, and have been " ailing" ever since, while 

 substitutes swear that they never were sick in their lives. In short, the surgeon must be con- 

 stantly upon the alert, be as incredulous as Saint Thouuis, and, like him, be satisfied with nothing 

 short of the cxperimentum cruets. One fraud has been successfully i)racticed in maoy oflices, which 

 cat! be obviated by a slight change in section 2;{, paragrai)li S.j. I allude to the voluntary reten- 

 tion of hernia within the abdomen. I am confident that certain i)ersons laboring under inguinal 

 hernia have the power to retain the knuckle of gut so firmly that no amount of exercise will bring 

 it down. This is rendered easier by a constipated state of the bowels, and these patriots are fully 

 informed as to the therapeutic properties of opium and tannin. The enlargement of the ring can 

 be discovered, of course, but this alone is not an authorized cause for exenii)tion or rejection. 



The "principal obstacles" in the way of the surgeon of an enrollment-board are so inseparably 

 connected with the office itself that I do not think it worth while to waste much time upon them. 

 They arise chiefly from the personal accpuiiutance of the surgeon with the peoi»le of his district, 

 and the consequent annoyance he is subjected to by constant importunity, and the expectation that 

 his former professional intercourse with the conscript is to guide him in his decision when the man 

 is brought before the board for examituition. Uuder the most favorable circumstances, the surgeon 

 cannot avoid giving great offense to many who fancy they have a claim upon him, based upon long 

 years of professional patronage. The surgeon must expect to submit to considei^able abuse and to 

 receive letters more pointed tban jiolite from those of his neighbors whom his decision has ren- 

 dered " tit food for powder." All this is annoying to be sure, but it issimi)ly an annoyance, and not 

 an obstacle. I am certain that my own former knowledge of a very large number of the conscripts 

 and volunteers examined at this othce was of great service to me in conjing to a correct conclusion. 

 In short, the compiler and author of paragraph 85, and the subsequent " directions to surgeons 

 upon the mode of examination," has in reality left no real obstacle in the way of the surgeon. His 

 duty is simple and clearly defined, and if he only obey his instructions to the letter, all seeming 

 dilBcuUies will vanish before him as did the iron portals before the talisman of tbe Persian prince 



Before leaving this i)art of my Subject, I ought to mention one cause of complaint on the part 

 of a few conscrii)ts, which, although groundless in point of fact, still gave the surgeon some trouble 

 to exi)lain satisfactorily. It hapi)ened last year that at least half a dozen men were drafted who 

 had served in the early part of the war, had been discharged upon surgeon's certificate, and at the 

 time of the draft were in the receipt of pensions from the Government. These men were found to 

 be tit ibr service, were accepted, and eventually furnished substitutes ; but it was difficult to make 

 them understand that a pension- warrant was not|jer se an exemption-certificate. Should occasion 

 ever arise for another draft, this would prove a most fruitful source of trouble, nnless. indeed, 

 examining surgeons under the pension-laws are held to a higher responsibility, and compelled to 

 make a more rigid examination. 



After a careful consideration of the question, based upon the appearance of men as we see them 

 at this oflice, I have come to the conclusion that the American and the negro are in many, if not 

 in most, respects better fitted for soldiers than men of otiier nationalities coming before the board. 

 1 am aware that the claims of the Irish and German have been warndy advocated in statistical 

 reports; but for symmetry of development, capacity of chest, strength and size of limb, I feel sure 

 that the Anglo American excels all others. * * I have had, however, but very slight 



observation of the negro personally, as we have examined very few at this othce, but those accei>ted 

 were ni every respect splendid men, and these, perhaps, choice specimeus, I am obliged to take as 



