surgeons' reports — NEW YORK SEVENTH DISTRICT. 245 



/ 



In reply to the fourth inquiry of the circular, the uudersigned desires to say that paragraph 

 85 of the Eegulations of the Provost-Marshal-GeneraPs Bureau has ever commanded his respect 

 and his admiration, as having been compiled with a great deal of care and sagacity. The under- 

 signed was invited by, and met with, a committee of surgeons of this city, in 1803, who, at the 

 request of the Surgeon-General, assembled to revise and suggest alterations in the different sec- 

 tions. It was remarkable how much they found to admire, and how little to alter. Some changes 

 w^ere suggested ; these, and other changes since made, have not materially modified the paragraph 

 in its workings. In the application of its formulas I have, as have doubtless all who have beea 

 engaged under it, encountered difficulties, though what were the precise points of all the occasions 

 does not now recur to my mind. I think that the limit of time as apidied to th(! certificate in the 

 case of epileptic patients is unjustly and needlessly stringent ; for epilepsy is precisely that disease 

 which, after continuing three, five, or more years, until it has exhausted the patience and the means 

 of the subject, and the skill and resources of the profession, still remains, and while paroxysms may 

 occur every month, yet the patient may not be seen by a medical man for years. 



I would strike off the last clause of section 25, as would any one, I think, who has witnessed 

 the horrible sufferings of the man compelled to be about with inflamed and tender pile-tumors. 



Sections 27 and 28 I would have somewhat modified, and I would alter the phraseology of the 

 last clause of section 29. I cannot see the use of the word " total," which so frequently occurs ; 

 at any rate as qualifying the word " loss." * * * 



The sixth question is, " How many men can be examined in a day with accuracy?" Greatly 

 differing answers will be returned to this inquiry. I would say that if the regulations were strictly 

 complied with, the men taken singly, thoroughly, and carefully examined, and the examination 

 recorded, each man should be allowed from eight to ten minutes; this would make nhont fifty per- 

 sons per diem, and that is as large a number as can be carefully, thoroughly, and justly exam- 

 ined, according to my opinion. 



The seventh query calls irp, of course, a great many expedients that were resorted to by two 

 classes of men, those anxious to keep out of the service, as well as those desirous to get iu. The 

 enumeration of these attempts at deception would have little of novelty, and I can only suggest 

 for remedy the prompt, careful, and patient scrutiny of each and every case. 



I cannot clearly answer as to the superiority for military capacity of any nationality. My 

 record shows the best. physical averages of Irish; yet I am not clear to say that they arebetter 

 than our own countrymen. In a city like this, the proportion of foreign-born must always be larger, 

 and the character of the native recruits always poorer than in other towns, and especially iu rural 

 districts. 



As to the capacity of the colored race for military service and efficiency, my experience is veiy 

 limited. I was called to examine very few in number, and those few were, for the most part, not 

 of such a character as to give any favorable impression of their physical character or capabilities. 



Next, my views are asked as to the operation, efficiency, &c., of the enrollment-act as it now 

 exists. I can onlj- speak of its operation in large cities like this ; perhaps in the country, where 

 almost every person in the community knows all bis neighbors and fellow-citizens, an enrollment 

 as ordered under this law might be eflected with some degree of perfection, but in a large city this 

 is, iu the very nature of things, absolutely impossible. All sorts of devices, subterfuges, and false- 

 hoods are resorted to, and such us, in very many cases, it is quite out of the power of the enrolling- 

 officer to avoid or to detect. Even jf an enrollment could by any possibility approach anywhere near 

 correctness to-daj^, such is the migratory character of a large share of our population that in three 

 mouths it would have become almost useless. Perhaps an enrollment in time of existing war will 

 ever be unattainable with any great degree of accuracy ; but it may, perhaps, be effected in some 

 such way as this ; that a self-enrollment should at all times be demanded — compulsory and uniuter- 

 mittiug — and when not completely kept up, that the party should forfeit his rights of citizenship. 

 To more fully secure the end, it should be enacted that whenever the parties changed their location 

 or residence, in addition to their own duty of re-registering themselves, the responsibility of their 

 landlords should be involved — that every landlord of a house rented, or of a house containing 

 boarders or lodgers, should be made responsible for an immediate registration of each and every 

 per.sou who came under his observation and supervision in that manner. And as the maxim, 



