surgeons' reports NEW YORK FIFTEENTH DISTRICT. 261 



villages, where a great propoitioii of tlieiiopnlatioii are engaged in niannfactnving, tbe great mass 

 of tlie people aie devoted to the pursuit of agriculture. 



lu Troy, tile foreign element predominates among the laboring classes, and there is a consid- 

 erable sprinkling of Irish and Germans in nearly all the towns. In one or two towns in Washington 

 County nearly all the iidiabitauts are of Scotch descent, and no town in the district showed so 

 large a proportion of sound, able-bodied men as this, lu my opinion, intemperance^ operates, 

 directly and indirectly, as the cause of more disabilities than anything else. Varicose veins and 

 ulcers and hernia, of course, exist to a greater extent among those whose occupation renders it 

 necessary for them to labor standing, or among those who frequently lift heavy weights. * * * 



I do not know that I would suggest any changes in the different sections of paragraph 85 of 

 the Revised liegulations of the Provost-Marshal-General's Bureau, with the single exception of 

 section 23, "hernia." I have for a long time had my doubts as to the propriety of exempting all 

 men from military service who had hernia. Any medical mau of much practice must have observed 

 hundreds of men with rupture performing the most arduous labor continuously, day after day and 

 year after year, without ever calling upon a physician or surgeon for relief from strangulation, and 

 without inconvenience or i)ain. Indeed, I have fre(pientlj' met with individuals who had had a 

 hernia for years without knowing it themselves. When in the service, I knew some enlisted men 

 in my own regiment, always ready for duty, who were ruptured and never wore a truss ; and I know 

 some officers and men now in the Army, who have served since 1861, with hernia, and without serious 

 inconvenience. I think, therefore, that the subject merits some consideration, whether a recruit, 

 able-bodied in all other respects, should always be rejected for a slight hernia. In this, as well as 

 some other intirniities, a distinction might be made between drafted men and recruits and sub- 

 stitutes. 



In my opinion, fifty men per diem are as many as one surgeon can examine carefully and 

 thoroughly. 



Among the frauds most apt to be practiced, or rather attempted, by drafted and enrolled men 

 to escape the service, is the procuring of certiticates from physicians, stating that they have been 

 under treatment for various organic diseases of a chronic nature. If tbe examiuing-surgeon has his 

 eyes open, however, he lu^ed not be imposed upon in this manner. One obstacle in the examina- 

 tion of substitutes and recruits consists in the fact that brokers and recruiting-agents are apt to 

 ply their nu'u more or less with liquor, and thus, sometimes, men who are lame and stifi' with rheu- 

 matism, or of a broken-down constitution, are made to appear supple and strong, when, perhai>s, 

 in a few hours, alter the effects of the stimulus have passed off, their real condition becomes apparent. 

 I have always refused to examine a mau who was at all intoxicated ; but I would recommend the 

 propriety of enforcing a rule that no recruit for the Army should be examined whose breath smells 

 at all of liquor. By dyeing the hair and insertion of artificial teeth, old men .sometimes attempt 

 to pass as being under forty-five years of age; but a surgeon of quite limited experience as exam- 

 iner will detect such frauds. 



The native-born American makes, i>hysically, the best soldier, and, in addition, from his sujie- 

 rior intelligence, he can better care for himself in camp, field, or barracks. 



The colored men, so far as my observation goes, make excellent soldiers. They are, as a race, 

 remarkably free from hernia, are muscular, and capable of great endurance. The mulatto, how- 

 ever, is comparatively worthless, subject to scrofula and tuberculosis. 



In regard to the enrollment-law as it now exists, I have no modification or change to suggest. 

 If calls for troops can be filled by volunteering, it is better than to draft; but I would have a 

 uniform, moderate bounty over the whole country ; then, if the quota of a district is not full at the 

 appointed time, let the drafted mau go himself or furnish an acceptable substitute ; and let the 

 price for substitutes also be fixed by law and be uniform. The system of large bounties has been 

 a premium for desertion, and a fountain-head of corruption for the whole jjcople. 



G. L. HUBBELL, 

 Surgeon Board of Enrollment Fifteenth District of New York. 



Troy, New York, May 31, 1865. 



