surgeons' reports MASSACHUSETTS NINTH DISTRICT. 217 



Tliere are scliooMiouscs iu every iieigliborliootl, and a eliiircli in every village and hamlet. 

 The iieciiniaiy resources and wealth are unequaled by any inland district iu the United States. 

 The intellijieiice and inloiination of its people are, according' to ])<)])nlation, unsurjiassed in any 

 part of the j;lobe. The voters are loyal, with scarcely au exception ; in tavor of rree(h)ni and equal 

 rights to every member of the hunian family, regardless of nationality, rank, condition, or color. 



The ])revailing diseases are those of whose (causes we know but little, and over the existence 

 of which science has exerted but slight control ; namely, tyi)hoid fever, consumption, scarlatina, 

 diphtheria, cerebro spinal meningitis, &c. 



I do Tiot thiidv paragraph 85 of our instructions can be essentially imjjroved. Section 9 should 

 be carefully used, the surgeon giving a full de.scrii)tiou of the condition of the drafted mau 

 exempted under it. * * * 



From forty to Jifty men per day may be accurately examined, on an average. 



The best way to prevent frautlulent entries and exits from the army is to have honest, truly 

 loyal, well-educated, active, and intelligent surgeons to examine recruits; men perfected and 

 sharpened by personal and professional intercourse with the world. To this should be added 

 authority to have every man arrested, tried, and punished who gets' in or out of the service 

 fraudulently. 



The first great hinderance to a faithful discharge of duty here was the improper intermeddling 

 of the surgeon-general of this State in giving accepted drafted men certificates of disability on 

 their or their Iriends' interested statement, without a proi)er carelul personal examination for him- 

 self; the second, the selection of surgeons to re-e.iaminc recruits who had never done a sufficiently 

 large daily business, before entering the army, to pay for one i)erson's daily bread. Our pro- 

 fessional decisions in this State were reviewed by three contract surgeons, selected, ai>parently, 

 because they had nothing else to do, and recommended, I jiresume, by one who seemed to lose 

 sight of the great cause in which we were engaged, in his anxious desire to relieve every needy, 

 ecnnplaining individual w'ho a|)[)lied to him. We needed to be very good natured men to .sub- 

 mit to have our verj' best recruits, men about whom we frequently knew as well as about 

 our own children, discharged for myopia, inveterate stammering, chronic inflammation of the 

 eyes, permanent contraction of the mouth, and other easily feigned and as easily detected diseases, 

 on the mere statement of the recruit, with his three or four hundred dollars' bounty iu his pocket, 

 and the knowledge in his head that as soon as he was discharged he could re-enlist and get as 

 much more. I do not think these surgeons meant or intended to do wrong; but they were 

 strangers, and these recruits took them in. * * * 



I think Americans i>resent the greatest aptitude for military life; among them I should include 

 the colored race. Next in order of capacity, judging Irom those in this country, I should place the 

 Irish. 



It is my opinion we should have failed, in k "eping the army full without the enrollment-law, 

 and the fear of a draft behind it, and, as a consequence, should have failed to subdue the 

 rebellion. # * # 



ORAMEL JIAKTIN, 

 Surgeon Board of Enrollment Ehjiith District Massachusetts, 



WoECESTEB, Mass., June 12, 1SC5. 



MASSACHUSETTS— NINTH DISTRICT. 

 Extracts from reiiort of Dr. E. C. Riohardson. 



The whole number of men examined in the ninth district of Massachusetts, aecoiding to the 

 records of this office, is 4,;"i50. » # * 



The ninth district of Ma.ssachusetts, iu area, is about one hundred and fifteen miles long by 

 fifty in width. It consists of the counties of Franklin, Hampshire, and a part of Worcester, and 

 contains, in all, seventy-two towns. The surface of the country is hilly. Soil in the eastern part a 

 sandy loam ; in the western, clay and loam; and fertile on the banks of the Connecticut River, 

 which runs through the western part of the district. 



