surgeons' reports — NEW YORK — NINTH DISTRICT. 253 



eucc have beeu too uiiifoiiu to ascribe tlieni to such exceptional causes as the excesses or vicious 

 indulgences of city-life. # » * 



I found in some cases, especially among the poor, that the third section of paragraph So was 

 difficult to follow literally in the ca.ses of patients who had been subject to epilepsy for many years, 

 but who, on account of their circumstances and despairing of cure, had not, for more tiian six 

 mouths previously, sought medical advice. These cases would be manifestly unfit for service, and 

 some were exempted for mental imbecility. In the reports, however, for the sake of accuracy in 

 medical statistics, I have classed them as epilepsy. This section I would amend thus : " The existence 

 of this disability shall be established by satisfactory evidence, including the affidavits of persons who 

 have witnessed the man in a convulsion within four months immediately preceding his examination 

 by the board, and who have personal knowledge of his being subject to repeated attacks; and, in 

 addition thereto, such other evidence as the board may require.'' The characters of an epileptic 

 seizure are usually so marked, that the account of unprofessional observers ought to satisfy a careful 

 surgeon who personally examines the testimony, about as well as the affidavit of a physician. 



With section 4, I would recommend that the different divisions of each section be noted by 

 letters in italics, for the sake of future statistics. For example, the surgeon should report on the 

 exemptions of section 4 thus: "a (paralysis) No. — ; b (chorea) No. — ; c (atrophy) No. — ;" &c. 



Section 10, 1 would recommend to read, " Scrofula («) and secondary syphilis (?^)," with instruc- 

 tions to note, in cases of constitutional syphilis, the proportion of those who present cicatrices of 

 buboes. 



In section 27, I would add the word "chronic" before "stricture of the urethra,"' «S-c. When 

 urine is passed f/uttatim, it is, even in old cases, owing to a spasmodic narrowing supervening on an 

 organic stricture. A permanent stricture, to such a degree as to prevent emptying the bladder 

 except in drops, would be almost incompatible with life. * # » 



That this board has ever passed a man who was intoxicated I deny. I have temporarily 

 rejected many for this cause, as I know other surgeons of this city have done; and yet frequent 

 assertions are made by men, with a view to get out of the service, that they were enlisted in a state 

 of intoxication, or when wholly deprived of their senses by being drvyged. These statements have not 

 only been frequent in the papers, but were even made by General Dix in an official letter to the 

 Provost Marshal-General. Having never had any case of the kind reported to me for explanation, 

 I feel entitled to ask the question, What drug is there which, administered to a man, will abolish 

 his senses so that he is no longer conscious of his acts, without its abolishing, at the same time, 

 his powers of locomotion '? As a medical man and a teacher of materia medica in this city, I should 

 be obliged for this information ; for I do not know of any agent with such properties. The nearest 

 to it are alcoholic stimulants; but assuredly it will not be difficult for a surgeon to discover that a 

 man is drunk! No one connected with a New York office can be ignorant of the frauds perpetrated 

 or attempted by brokers through recruits, and at our own office a great many arrests have been 

 made on this account; but many absurd statements gained currency among the public, such as 

 that the recruits were intoxicated and drugged when the Government officials put them into 

 service. Affidavits were even published by military authorities, in which the recruits represented 

 that, at such a time, they passed into a state of unconsciousness, from which they awoke to find 

 themselves in uniform; whence it Ibllowed that they had been passed by the surgeon while in a 

 state of trance, so that it was beginning to be a stigma to be a surgeon at all! It ought to be 

 known that there is no mode of disturbing a man's faculties so easy as by liquor ; but, as intoxica- 

 tion is easily recognized. Government officials should hold the whole board of mustering officers 

 accountable for passing such cases, if any occur, rather than throw the blame on the surgeon 

 alone. * * * 



The number of men who can be accurately examined per day by one surgeon can hardly exceed 

 s/.r^,)/. The time consumed in taking the notes of name, birthplace, &c., along with the siiecial 

 medical notes of each case, is always considerable, apart from the time taken in the surgical exam- 

 ination. The better the physique of the man, the quicker his examination ; but there are many who 

 will have about them certain points (especially in inspection of the thorax) to determine and decide 

 upon which cannot be well done in a moment: for 1 consider it as nnicli the duty of the surgeon, 

 in the exigencies of the present war, not to lose a good recruit for a <loabt which a careful investi- 



