surgeons' RKPORTS — MASSACHUSETTS — SIXTH DISTKICT. 211 



tlie inanners and customs of foreign countries, he never loses bis individuality, and wherever he 

 may tix his habitation is still the New Englauder. 



The Great West has been settled chiefly by emigrants from New England. New England 

 ideas, traditions, institutions, religious faith, and political principles, transi)lantcd thither, have been 

 incorporated into the politics of our new commonwealths, which already dictate the policy and con- 

 trol the destinies of the republic. Thus, directly and indirectly, New England exerts a paramount 

 influence upon American civilization. To ber the country is indebted for much of the national 

 ])rosperity and glory ; for much of its mental, moral, and material wealth and resources. Amid 

 her bleak hills were nurtured those principles of civil aiul religious liberty in whose defense so 

 much blood and treasure have been lavisiied. Tlie part New England has borne in the war for the 

 Union is no less glorious and memorable than the part she sustained in the war of the Revolution. 

 To her inventive genius niankiud -ne indebted for the electric telegraph ; to her aptitude for philo- 

 sophical pursuits and scientiHc investigations for that most beneticent boon to suflering humanity, 

 the employment of autesthetic agents for the relief of pain. It will be seeu that the physical and 

 mental qualities with which the New Englander is endowed are those most desirable in the soldier; 

 and in the people who possess them the martial spirit is easily aroused. 



The rebellion has proved that New England troops are surpassed by none in the world. In 

 them the fiery impetuosity of the tropical nature is united with, and attempered by, the cool, deter- 

 mined valor and bull dog tenacity of purpose for which the northern races are distinguished. 

 Such a union of opposite qualities might be predicted of a race sprung from the fusion of so many 

 distinct nationalities. 



The physical condition of the enrolled population of the district is such as is usually found in 

 manufacturing communities; according to my observation comparing unfavorably with that of 

 otiier portions of the State where the prevailing occupations are more healthful. The shoe-bench 

 and the factory furnish employment for many who have become incapacitated for hard labor. These 

 persons naturally congregate where they can find work suited to their physical condition, an 

 additional cause for the large proportion of the draftable population of manufacturing regions 

 found unfitted for military service. 



Purtkular diaeaneH and disahiUlics that have disqualified a ijrcater ratio per thousand for mili- 

 tary service, and the reasons therefor. — The total number of men examined at these headquarters, 

 enrolled and drafted men, recruits and substitutes, as nearly as can be estimated, is upward of 

 ten thousand, and probab y exceeds rather than falls short of these figures. The particular dis- 

 eases and disabilities that have disqualified a greater ratio per thousand for military service, stated 

 in the order of their relative frequency, are as follows : 



Injuries, surgical diseases, and malformations of upper and lower extremities .... 874 



Teeth, loss of 487 



Hernia 453 



Feebleness of constitution, general debility, permanent physical disability, &c .. 453 



Heart, diseases of 376 



Eyes, injuries and diseases of -61 



Lungs, diseases of ^''^ 



Varicocele, cirsocele, sarcocele, and diseases of testicles 115 



Deafness, including purulent otorrhcea 1^8 



Brain and mind, affections of, including insanity, epilepsy, idiocy, &c 93 



Injuries and surgical diseases and malformations of the upper and lower extremities.— In this 

 district, according to the statistics obtained at this oHice, 8.74 per 1,000 of the male population jtf 

 suitable age to bear arms are disqualified therefor by injuries, diseases, or malformations affect- 

 ing the integrity of the upper or lower extremities; attections of the latter, however, exceeding 

 greatly in number those of the former. This circumstance is attributable partly to the fact that 

 varicose veins and chronic ulcers are much more common in the lower than in the upper extremi- 

 ties, aud that the .joints of the foriiu'r, large and small, are more frequently the seat of chronic 

 rlieumatism, chronic synovial inflammation, &c.; and partly to tne fact that malformations of the 

 lower extremities are found more lr<'<juently than of the upper. 



