258 surgeons' eepokts — new york — fourteenth district. 



recruits and substitutes, can only be met by vigilance and caution, and tbe employmeut of more 

 time in tbe exauiination tban has been granted at tbis office. # * # 



If tbe question of nationality had been varied somewhat, so as not to include the physical quali- 

 ties, I think the inquiiy might be more readily answered, believing, as I do, that, ccctcr is paribus, the 

 more intelligent and better educated and disciplined mind will make by far abetter soldier than an 

 interior mental organization. JSTeither do I think that our experience here has been sufficient to 

 answer the question justly and intelligently, inasmuch as various nations have contributed to our 

 armies almost entirely from certain trades and callings, to the comparative exclusion of the general 

 vocations of the people. Thus, Ireland contributed her laborers; England, Sweden, and Norway, 

 their hardy sailors; France and Holland, their sturdy fishermen; Germany, her intelligent artisans; 

 and America, I regret to say, not her best representative class ; at least, not at this oflice. From 

 these considerations, I do not feel warranted in answering the question definitely. 



The finest physical conformation met with during my examinations occurred in the person of 

 a negro from Central Georgia, and the poorest specimens offered have been also from the colored 

 race. Prone as the negro is to scrofula and its kindred diseases, and although generally well 

 developed about the superior portion of the body, indifierently formed as to his legs and feet, with 

 a shambling gait, a want of elasticity, and an abhorrence of cold, I look upon' the race as but indif- 

 ferently adapted for military service. 



As a matter of pure necessity, the district-surgeon knows but comparatively little of the practical 

 workings and minute details of th« enrolbnentlaw. His duties keep him closely occupied with the 

 examination of men, while the executive department devolves almost wholly upon the captain and 

 provost-marshal. His position is at times harassing and perplexing in the extreme; and here it 

 gives me great pleasure to testify to the fidelity and executive ability which Captain Pierson, of this 

 district, has ever displayed in his oflicial capacity. I am not aware of any change that would benefit 

 the operations of the enrollment-law. I would only respectfully suggest that certificates of exemp- 

 tion given iov i>ermuiunt physical (Usabiliti/ he final, and that none be stricken from the enrollment 

 unless by competent and experienced authority. 



Allow me, in conclusion, to make mention most respectfully of one grievous annoyance to 

 which a surgeon of a board of enrollment is subjected. Men enlisted at this oflBce in a sober con- 

 dition, and in the full possession of all their reasoning and thinking laculties, upon their arrival at 

 their regiment, weary of restraint and desirous of escaping from the service, have represented that 

 they were enlisted in a drugged and insensible condition, and such complaint has been referred 

 here for inquiry. I say here fearlessly that no man was ever enlisted at this otfiee in that condi- 

 tion, and that such referred inquiries reflect unpleasantly and unjustly upon surgeons and boards 

 of enrollment. It would be far preferable to meet such indirect charges before a court-martial than 

 to be annoyed by the slur cast by an irresponsible and lying recruit. 



L. F. PELTON, 

 Surgeon Board of Enrollment Tenth District of New York. 



Taeeytown, N. Y., June 21, 1865. 



NEW YORK— FOURTEENTH DISTRICT.'. 

 Extracts from report of Dr. S. O. Vanderpool. 



• * ^ » Previous to my appointment to the position of surgeon of this district, my 



personal experience in the examination of recruits was limited. As surgeon general of the State 

 during the first two years of the war, the suliject of recruiting had occupied my attention, and 

 circulars giving necessary instructions had from time to time been sent to the examining-surgeons 

 of regiments. These instructions would necessarily seem very imperfect when compared with the 

 work of the thoroughly-organized Bureau under your supervision. 



The number of examinations of which complete recoi'ds have been kept is tea thousancl six 

 hundred and nine. This does not, however, comprise all the examinations made; for, in the early 

 period of my labors, no record of rejected substitutes was kept, nor of rejected i-ecruits. So, too, 

 ' No rei)orts ^ere received from the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth districts. 



