250 SUKGEONS' REPORTS NEW iTORK EIGHTH DISTRICT. 



1 Lave already stated that ia oue day Dr. Derby and 1 examined sixty recruits; but we worked 

 from 9 a. m. till i p. lu., and examined no men for exemption. While I was iu the front room, pay- 

 lug bounties and signing papers, Dr. Derby conducted the examinations. Some of the rejections 

 are quickly made from mere external inspection. 



I would suggest that, iu times of great business activity, a sm-geoii's assistant, of good proles- 

 sional acquirements, should be ap[)ointed to attend with the surgeon during the whole icorling-hours 

 of the day — not as now, coming at his leisure — to keep the record of medical examinations, to relieve 

 the surgeon when fatigued, and to take his place in the few and brief absences which are necessary 

 to enable him to retain his private practice, and which it would be unfair, however paramount his 

 oflicial duties, to expect him wliolly to reliuquish. 



A special clerk to the surgeon should be appointed, charged only with making out enlistment- 

 papers, entering on the record the names and examinations of enrolled or drafted men, and making 

 out the monthly reports. This is work enough for him. Thus provided, and with such other cleri- 

 cal aid as might be occasionally needed, and with steady attendance, on the x^^rt of the two sur- 

 geons and the clerks, I suppose that sixty recruits, or one hundred or more enrolled men, or tico hun- 

 dred drafted men (which is, 1 believe, the number specified a« the rate at which the examinations 

 per diem should be made) might be examined with suflicieut accuracy. To do this, however, little 

 or no time must be spent idly. The delay is in recording the examinations. More than three men, 

 I think, ought not to be stripped and examined together, as confusion and error might arise. Ex- 

 aminations of enrolled men cause the most delay; much talking is to be done to convince or recon- 

 cile them to an adverse decision ; much appeal and argument to be heard, so as not to appear 

 harsh or uncivil, or give unnecessary offense in an unpopular duty. I have recorded the examina- 

 tion of cighty-seren iu one day, with partial attendance only ot my assistant, and the intermingling 

 of some other duties of substitutes and recruits; and on three separate days the number, respect- 

 ively, of forty-seven, fifty-four, and sixty. 



Deliberate frauds among enrolled men 'to escape draft were rare. Their complaints, I think, 

 were honestly made for the most part. I had some difliculty with those who had hernia and wore 

 trusses, which they were not always willing to remove, and could not Mways make their hernias 

 protrude if they did. I did not exempt in these cases. Excessive complaints of slight varicose 

 veins, of haimorrhoids, not discoverable at the time of examination; chronic rheumatism or lum- 

 bago, generally attributed to disease of the kidney; deafness, not decided; insufficient loss of 

 teeth ; varicocele, corns, tender feet, &c., were of common occurrence, but availed little, though 

 honestly pleaded. Lastly, and one of the most difficult to encounter, a firm conviction on the part 

 of the applicant, based on some supposed ailment, or physician's certificate, or some real degree of 

 slight physical debility, that he was totally unfit for military service, and would break down on the 

 shortest march, and, in no time at all, beiu hospital. Nothing gave more offense than to tell these 

 parties that active service would probably benefit their health, or that they might do ser\ ice iu 

 the Eeserve Corps; and this, iu men of wealth, abundantly able to provide substitutes, coming to 

 plead their cause in person, attending to their business, enjoying their pleasures, with little or no 

 external evidence of disability, and with no idea of standing the draft, if not exempted from it, or 

 going to the front themselves. 



It is difficult to satisfy these parties without giving offense, and such cases ai-e, I think, among 

 the most troublesome which are brought under the notice of tlie surgeon of the board, and require 

 the very strictest expression and clearest possible written definition of his duty — those in which it 

 is desirable that he should have to repose the least possible reliance on his own judgment, and be 

 able to exhibit the legal " litera scripta ipsissimap A few glass eyes, false sets of teeth, over age, 

 a hernia stealthily pushed back at the moment of examination, are a few of the clumsy devices 

 practiced by men seeking to enlist to deceive and " pass the doctor," but which ought no more to 

 succeed with a man of ordinary sagacity and ol)servation than the bribes offered by men and brokers 

 should infiuenccan honest one. Tlie strict investigation I have described detects all these defects 

 certainly and (juickly ; and when the character of the surgeon for acumen and honesty is known, 

 they will not olten be attempted. Few good-for-nothing men were brought to me of late, and bribes 

 ceased to be offered. I have heard of gray hair being dyed, and one man substituted for another; 

 but nothing of the kind occurred under my observation. * * * 



