208 surgeons' reports — Massachusetts — fifth district. 



and irregular. I suspected them, and told them bluntly, " You are not well, but will be better in a 

 day or two." I held them to the draft, and heard no complaint afterward. Many complained of 

 imperfect vision, and when I could not verify the defect, I .sometimes referred them to some dis- 

 tinguished oculist, and in every such instance they obtained the desired affidavit, until I began to 

 think that the uuboiight testimony of their neighbors would be worth more than the paid certifi- 

 cate of an expert. But the greatest difficulty I had to contend with, in regard to the draft, arose 

 from the sympathy of physicians and other infinential friends. I claim that our physicians, in 

 general, are as honorable, liberal, and high-minded as any class of uieu; but among two hundred 

 there must, of necessity, be some exceptions. 



Tlie history of a man from his family physician was frequently of great weight in my mind, 

 but sometimes we fonnd it colored a little, and sometimes colored a good deal. # * # 



I would, however, mention one difficulty which we often met with, and which existed entirely 

 outside your Bureau, in the military practice of appointing boards of inspection to examine recruits 

 after being mustered in, with a view to their discharge from the service. Large numbers of able- 

 bodied men recruited in this commonwealth, and a fair share of them in the fifth district, have 

 been summarily discharged from the place of i-endezvous for various pretended disabilities. One 

 declares before the board of inspection that be is but sixteen or seventeen years old, though a few 

 weeks before he declared himself to be, and his parents swore that he was, eighteen years old, 

 which statement his ap[)earance confirms. The board of inspection at Galloupe's Island can have 

 no means of information but the boy's declaration, yet will discharge him upon it. In several 

 instances they have in their report made an error of a year or more, according to the town or city 

 records. Another soldier is discharged for general debility or defective vision, who was unmis- 

 takably known at our office, by sure tests, to be of good physique and to see well. Another is 

 discharged for epilepsy who never had a fit in his native place, where he had resided for years 

 before his enlistment. Another was discharged for a deformity of the collar-bone resulting from 

 fracture, although the deformity, if it might be so called, was no greater than is ordinarily found 

 in the re-union of the broken ends of that bone, and which is not generally supposed to disable a 

 man for any kind of service. And thus, for blemishes of the most tritiing description, or for disa- 

 bilities which were proved only by the declaration of the recruit, who had just received a hand- 

 some bounty, have our soldiers been thrown out of the service, yometimes they were men who 

 had served out acceptably a previous term of service, and were recommended to us by their former 

 captains; some of them, within our knowledge, went afterward to some other State, enlisted, and 

 were duly mustered in. Such men as these, being thus summarily discharged to go where they 

 pleased, the surgeon who i»assed them in as recruits is afterward called upon to show cause, if any 

 he have, why he should not pay the incidental expenses of enlistifig them. 



However faithful he may have been in the discharge of his duty, or however busy in other 

 official occupations, he is obliged to set about hunting up evidence to defend himself from this 

 exjxirte decision, made under unfavorable circumstances, by a board, appointed perhaps hastily, and 

 often composed of one young post-surgeon and several unprofessional cfiScers, who have not the 

 same means of knowing all the facts to be considered and decided upon as the board of enroll- 

 ment before whom these soldiers were enlisted. I beg leave, therefore, to suggest " to whom it may 

 concern" that soldiers should not under like circumstances be re-examined and discharged hastily, 

 without an opportunity being given to the surgeon accountable for their enlistment to appear and 

 be heard at the time of the investigation. It would then most likely appear that tlie soldier had 

 either deceived the board of enrollment, or was attempting to deceive the board of inspection. 



The very small number of French, Italians, Swiss, and Russians examined at our office, pre- 

 cludes us from forming an opinion as to the physical aptitude of the men of these nations for military 

 service. A large percentage of our native Americans are rejected for some positive disability, 

 but those that arc accepted, while they may not come up to the average of Irishmen and Germans 

 in mere strength, seem to me to more than compensate for any such deficiency by their superior 

 readiness, activity, and agility. 



Tbe negroes do not appear on our records as a separate class, being arranged with others 

 according to their several ])laces of nativity. My recollection of them is that they are generally 

 sound, strong, active, and quick to apprehend any direction that may be given them ; and, judg- 



