SURGEONS REPOETS NEW JERSEY FIRST DISlRICr. 281 



niid heavy in their niotioD.s ; they do not seem to have tlit! nervous energy or iutellinent activity in 

 that ratio that the native-born white possesses. * * * 



The enrolhiieiit-law. in its essential parts, is, 1 think, correct. That it has been misconstrned 

 and abused in many of its workinf;s I am quite certain ; but I know it is very diftieult to frame 

 any hiw of the character of the enrollment-law without its being liable to abuse. Different men 

 view it differently, and are honest in their opinions, and I have no <loubt others construe it to 

 please the jieople for the purpose of popularity. 



I thiidi every State should bereipiired to keep up an exact and correct enrollment. An enroll- 

 iug'-oflicer should be located in each subdistrict, and every year the enrollment should be taken 

 carefully. All per.sons between the ages of eighteen and forty five, not exempt by mental or phys- 

 ical disability, should be required to form themselves into companies, battalions, or regiments. 

 Each company ought to spend three days in the month'of June of each year in manual exercise 

 and drill; and, in September, the regiment should meet at a central point, and spend an equal nuu)- 

 ber of days in regimental drill. Each regiment should have a competent surgeon to decide on 

 cases of disability, and he should be held to a strict accountability lor his acts. 



In conclusion, allow me tojnako the following suggestions in reference to surgeons of boards 

 of enrollment: You aie well aware that surgeons are human beings, and are as susceptible to flat- 

 tery and adulation as other men. I have been forcibly struck with the tact that enrolling sur- 

 geons have not been noticed by the War Dei>artmeutas other men in the service have been. They 

 have not had rar>k and j)ay as others have had. This may account for there being so many young 

 and inexperienced surgeons in the service. Again, the great reason why there has been .so much 

 trouble with surgeons of boards of enrollment is that the pay has not been sufficient to induce 

 good and competent surgeons who are in active practice to abandon their business and devote their 

 whole time and attention to official duties. Too many incompetent and (as the past will show) dis- 

 honest nien have been employed. Surgeons of boards of eurollment should have rank and pay 

 sufiQcient to enable them to abandon all other business and give their whole time to the one work. 

 No surgeon should be appointed in the district where he resides. There is no physician but has 

 his friends, and none without his enemies, in the district which he inhabits; he is consequently 

 liable to censure, when, if he was removed to some district where he was an entire stranger, he 

 would not be subject to the same embarrassments. 



H. S. CHUBBUCK, 

 Surgeon Board of Enrollment Twenty-seventh District New YorhJ 



Elmika, N. Y., June 2, 18G5. 



NEW JERSEY— FIEST DISTRICT. 

 Extracts from report of Dr. John E. Stevenson. 



* * * The first congressional district embraces the whole of the southwestern portion 

 of New Jersey. Its shape is somewhat quadrangular; each of its sides is about fllty miles long. 

 Tts northern boundary is the southern border of Burlington County, which begins at the Delaware 

 River, about six miles above Philadelphia, and runs southeast to the Atlantic Ocean. Its western 

 boundary is the Delaware Eiver; its southern is the Delaware Bay; and its eastern is the Atlantic 

 Ocean. 



There are no especial epidemic diseases to which the inhabitants are particularly liable, neither 

 are there any severe or violent endemic ones more prevalent here than in other parts of the country. 

 On the contrary, au apparent immunity from certain diseases is enjoyed in some parts of the district. 

 Along the valley of the Delaware, malarial fevers in a mild form are moderately prevalent ; but in 

 the sea-coast section, where the soil is a light porous sand, which rajjidly absorbs the water falling 

 on the surface, and where the streams are running water, these fevers are almost unknown. The 

 latter part of the district, or especially that portion of it covered with pine and cedar forests, enjoy.-i 

 a remarkable immunity from phthisis and bronchial affections, and has long enjoyed a high reputa 



' No ie>;oits were received fiom the twenty-eighth, twentv-ninth, thirtieth, or thirtv-first district. 



