254 SURGEONS' REPORTS — NEW YORK — NINTH DISTRICT. 



gation might reniovo, as to be careful tbat no unfit man shall pass him. Claimants for exemption 

 need still more time, for with most of them it is impossible to make their story short; besides that, 

 many bring certificates to be read with reference to their infirmities. The duty of Government 

 officials to guard against increasing the ordinary dissatisfaction with an unpopular law by a want 

 of courtesy will oblige the surgeon to waste many minutes with them which could be better devoted 

 to examining recruits. The time taken in signing his name four or five times for every man he 

 passes will consume about an hour and a half for sixty men, if be can write fast. 



Simulated disease I have not found, on the part of drafted and enrolled men, as often as might 

 be expected. Most claimants seemed honestly to consider their alleged causes of disability as 

 genuine. A great many come up for chronic rheumatism, and, in not a few cases, there can be no 

 doubt that they are unfit for the service from their extreme liability to that disease uuder slight 

 exposure, though they may present neither pufQness nor distortion of the joints. The lai'gest ratio 

 of attempted fraud among drafted or enrolled men to a given disease was for affections of the 

 kidneys and bladder; but a very cursory series of questions would suffice to dispose of their pre- 

 tensions. Strictures of the urethra, likewise, frequently dilated of themselves, when it was under- 

 stood that the passage of a sound was necessary to determine whether the water could come only 

 by drops. 



Frauds attempted by recruits and substitutes, on the other hand, are common. The first I 

 would mention, for its frequency, is disguise of over age. This may seem to be easily discoverable; 

 but some men ovei forty-five are strong-bodied, and, with dyed hair and rouged skin, do not seem 

 half so decrepit as many au enrolled mau of thirty, while their movements are brisk and elastic 

 till they get Into the service, wheu they turn into feeble hoary-heads, who have suffered froifl 

 rheumatism, as they claim, for twenty years. Attempts to hide false teeth with a large quid of 

 tobacco are very common. I have met with cases of men who have had ice applied to their legs to 

 diminish varicose veins; and this trick I once discovered had been employedto conceal a hernia 

 also, a bladder of ice having been applied over the inguinal canal. The effects of cold in the exam- 

 ining-room, in winter, in contracting varix of the leg, varicocele, and hernia, should be watched. 

 There are so many cases of persons with very dilatable inguinal rings, and yet who have never had 

 hernia, that a surgeon will often be in doubt, after the usual tests, whether a recruit be ruptured 

 or not. 



The chief difficulty in the discharge of my duties has been want of a suitable examining-room. 

 The pi'ovision in the law requiring recruits to be stripped iu the presence of the board led to the 

 examining-place being divided only by a curtain from the rest of the headquarters' room. The 

 noise inseparable from such an office, especially during the proceedings after a draft, when drafted 

 men, substitutes, brokers, &c., crowded in, often made it nearly impossible to hear. The surgeon 

 should be provided with two rooms, one for the recruits to strip in, and the other for his examina- 

 tions, where, also, he should have his special clerk. A danger has to be guarded against of dis- 

 honest officials, or guards in collusion with brokers, substituting a rejected man for au accepted 

 one who has personated him, and who then escapes after the surgeon has examined him. A case 

 of this kind was fortunately detected at our office, but the only punishment that could be inflicted 

 was dismissal of the clerk, who stated afterward that he had made all he wanted out of the office 

 anyhow. 



My opinion with reference to the nationality best qualified for military service is that it is the 

 American. Mj' statistics, however, have varied considerably in this respect. In my examinations, 

 in 1SG2, of 8,700 i-ecruits, nearly 4,G0O were native Americans, and 70 per cent, of these recruits were 

 from the country. At that time, I found the American physique rated as " prime" in 49.00 per cent. ; 

 the Germans, in 43.25 per cent.; and the Irish, in 30.50 per cent. In the draft of 1SG3, however, 

 uuder a somewhat different notation, which, therefore, is of use only for comparison, the relation of 

 these nationalities is reversed, thus: Germans, j)rime, 61. G per cent.; Irish, GO.G ; Americans, 58.2. 

 This change is partly ascribable to the inferiority of city to country recruits, above referred to; but 

 also to the natural workings of the dratt. Volunteers are, so to speak, a picked class, as only those 

 wiio consider themselves healthy come forward. The draft-wheel, on the other hand, brings to the 

 surgeon many weakly persons, or persons who have lived in sedentary pursuits, and who would 

 never have come otherwise. The foreigners, on the other hand, who made \\\^ the majority of the sub- 



