190 surgeons' reports VERMONT FIRST DISTRICT. 



t,\ pes of the race. It so happened that most of our colored recruits were nearly or quite of full 

 blood, and the flatness of the foot was the only peculiarity noted, and this being the distinctive 

 mark of a race accustomed to make rapid march over the length and breadth of the African conti- 

 nent, I should hesitate to pronounce it disqualifying. I firmly believe that a more extended experi- 

 ence will prove the negro to be in every way well qualified ior the lile and duties of a soldier, and, 

 sliould occasion ofl'cr, I shall confidently expect to see him display the same undaunted courage 

 the same endurance of fatigue, exposure, and hardship, and the same soldierly qualities that have 

 just won such imperishable renown lor our national armies. 



I think I have become tolerably familiar with the operations of the enrollmentact, and I can- 

 not recommend any change. On the contrary, I am astonished that a vast and complex system, 

 called into being, as it were, in a day, should be so perfect in all its details. In this district, at 

 least, there has arisen no question nor difliculty that has not been satisfactorily solved by the able 

 and untiring assistant provost-marshal for Xew Uanipsliire. It may be that the experience of the 

 jjast will show that the law may be improved in some of its minor details; but even then it is not 

 lor us to suggest the change, but it should be left to the better judgment of that valuable class of 

 men educated by the United States to fill the places they now hold so honorably to themselves 

 and so invaluably to the country. # # # 



DIXI CEOSBY, 

 Sttrgeon Board of Unrolhneni Third District Neic liamiwhire. 



West Lebanon, N. II., June 3, 18G5. 



VERMONT— FIRST DISTRICT. 

 Extracts from report of Dr. B. F. Morgan. 



* 



I have examined, of drafted inen, recruits, substitutes, and for disenroU- 

 ment, about ^ve thousand men iu the first congressional district of Veimout. 



This district is about one hundred and fiity miles long from north to south, and averages iu 

 width about thirty miles; it lies between the latitude of 4lio 44' and 44° 32' north, and between 3° 

 30' and 4° 41' of east longitude. It is bounded on the south by the county of Berkshire, Massachu- 

 setts; on the west by the State of !New York and by Lake Chaniplain ; and on the north and east by the 

 adjoining counties in the State of Vermont. It is situated in the southwest, west, and central part 

 of the State, and is the western slope of the Green Mountains, whose highest ridges are nearly its 

 eastern boundaries. The ranges of rocks are in lines parallel with the principal ranges of the 

 mountains. Granular limestone, argillaceous slate, granular quartz, and granite abound iu this 

 district. 



The principal minerals are iron-ore, manganese, lead, and <ropper. This district is abundantly 

 supplied wiih water ; the streams running from east lowest have all rapid currents; the huge 

 streams, running from south to north, as the Hoosic and Otter Creek, and from north to south, as 

 the Battenkill and the Winooski, are bordered hy extensive iritervales of alluvium formed of ooze 

 containing portions of lime mixed with argillo-siliceous and siliceous and organic matter, which 

 renders the soil fertile and the vegetable growth luxuriant. 



In many portions of this division there is an abundance of decomposing material for the gener- 

 ation of miasm, but the evils arising from this cause have been almost entirely remedied by drain- 

 age and cultivation, so that the influence of marsh-miasm, as an exciting cause of disease, has, ia 

 most places, entirely disappeared. In some of the towns bordering on Lake Champlain, however, 

 disease is supposed to be somewhat modified by this cause. 



The prevailing winds are easterly and westerly, with occasional variations from the northeast, 

 and are Ireijuently very strong. The temperature langes from a maximum of 1)0° Fahrenheit iu 

 summer to a minimum of —20° in winter. 



The prevailing diseases are rheumatism, phthisis pulmonalis, pneumonia, diarrhoea, dysentery, 

 typhoid fever, scarlatina, and diphtheria; which last has prevailed for the last four or five years 

 extensively and destructively. The causes of these diseases are general, and supposed to depend 

 ui)on the sudden changes of our variable climate. Locality does not seem to have much influence 



