SUBGEOKS UEPORTS NEW JERSEY ElKTll DISTRICT. 293 



with no visible lucans of support, liiat iiilVst our district, owiuj,' to tlio convenience it afiFords for 

 escaping Ironi liie New York police. « # » 



Tlie mental and physical Ibrces of the peoi)le are active; dispatch of business is considered 

 the first element to success. 



The comforts of home are highly i)rized in this community, and largely enjoyed. The 

 disposition of our people in this respect is seen in our numerous cott;?ges, built in a plain, sub- 

 stantial manner, in keeping with good taste and a limited purse; comfort rather than display 

 being sought after. True, we have the ott'set to the above in our tenement-houses, so very common 

 in cities; but I am happy to believe them in disproixirtion to other cities. 



JJut a few years since we enjoyed a high reputation for temperance, which has been lessened 

 durnig the past five years ; which change, 1 think, may in a measure be accounted for by tiie great 

 state of excitement in which the pi'ople lia\e lived during that in'iit)d, and, in a degiee, b\ the 

 general adoption of lager-beer as a common beverage, through an erroneous impression that it is 

 harmless, sim))ly because the injurious. effects from its excessive use are not seen as readily as those 

 of distilled liquors. • » » 



A little over one-third, or 0.33S, of the exemptions under the last call were for tuberculosis, 

 permanent physical disability, and diseases of internal organs, or for those disabilities for which 

 climatic; cau.ses or particular occupations are largely accountable. Among the forn:er may be 

 named the ilfect of the long-continued high temperature of the atmosphere upon an active people 

 whose occupation admits of no remission even during the summer-months. The hum of business 

 about our manufacturing establishments is no less continuous in summer than in autumn, .--o that 

 the sweltering atmosphere of the warm season is added to the confined air of the workshop. That 

 we should have had a large number of exemptions from causes so induced is not surprising to 

 those acquainted with the routine of life in a manufacturing district. We have but to witness the 

 relaxed condition of the people thus employed, to acknowledge them the ready victims to organic 

 disease, or to satisfy ourselves of their being in that atonic; c-onclition which is the progenitor of 

 disease. If, for example, we examine the table for exemptions under the column of ••occupation," 

 we find 59 clerks exemi)ted, of whom 25 were afflicted with the three diseases above mentioned ; 31 

 hatters, of whom 12 were similarly exem])ted ; jewelers, IS out of 12 : tailor.s, 17 out of 41; 

 laborers, oO out of 105 : and thus if we trace the table through we find the ratio of exemptions for 

 those three causes prevailing inversely to the healthfuluess of the occupation, or to the means 

 attbrded by the occupation for a liealflilnl exercise of the body and fir bn>athing the pure air of 

 heaven. 



Then, if we add to the above the exemptions for hernia, which I believe to be largely 

 dependent upon the relaxed condition of fiber of the peojile, and upon the violent nniscular exer- 

 tions called for in some occupations, we find no great dirt'erencc in the occurrence of hernia l)c>tween 

 those who follow a laborious occupation and those who follow one that has a tendency to enfeeble 

 the constitution, and esi)ecially the muscular system, leaving an inference that a relaxed system is 

 as Ireciuent a clause for the affection as any other. For exami)Ie, with clerks, 13 out of 59 exemptions 

 were for hernia ; over one half as many as for tuberculosis, permanent physical disability, and 

 diseases of internal organs. With sailors, 9 out of 41, the other three causes, 17 ; again a fraction 

 over one hall. For butchers we have 4 out of 7 exemptions for hernia, and none for either of 

 the three causes mentioned above. With blacksmiths the exemptions for hernia were the same as 

 for the other three causes, thc-re being 7 exemptions for each out of a total of 21 exemptions 

 With machinists the exemptions for hernia are but one less than for the other three causes; hernia 

 beings, and the other three 9 out of 32 exemptions. Therefore, 1 regard it as being i)roduced by 

 the same causes in this hwalily as the other three, which gives us 0..'?3S for tuberculosis, permanent 

 physical disability, and disease of internal organs, and0.1S9 for hernia— making 0.527 for the entire 

 exemptions. 



Next in frequency in our causes of exemptions is loss of teeth, for which I will not attenii)t to 

 assign a cause, unless to suppose it due to the i)rcvalence of dentists in the district ; but that 0.122 

 should be exempt for such a cause is exceedingly suriuising, and the more so that neither occupa- 

 tion, climate, nor any other known cause with which I am acquainted will account for it. 



The frequent disabilities from external causes, as the loss of the use of a limli, &c., are accounted 



