296 surgeons' repokts — Pennsylvania — first district. 



I believe there are remedies for some of these obstructions : 



1st. By making it a penal offense for any man to enlist who knows himself to be suffering from 

 a disability that an examination cannot detect. 



2d. By making it a penal oflense for any man to re-enlist who was discharged for disability, 

 withont infoiuiing the examining snrgeon of that disability. 



3d. Brokers should be tined an equivalent to the bonus they would make if th^ man should be 

 mustered in, lor every att( nipt to pass a man who has been once rejected, without giving informa- 

 tion of his previous rejection and of the cause. It should be Optional with the examining-surgeon 

 whether his time shall be consumed by examining such subject. 



4th. A broker should be made equally responsible with the board of enrollment for expenses 

 incurred in the mustering of a man presented by him, as lie, in most instances, is aware of the disa- 

 bility, it having been picvior.sly <( nfidid (o liim; and if conceal men t were possible, he has instructed 

 the subject how to do it. Thus would the board be relieved of a very great burden of useless labor. 

 On many days, the rejections weie equal and sometimesgreater than the number of those accepted, 

 and the great majority of the former were men who had been rejected elsewhere. 



The eighth query is somewhat ambiguous. If it means to ask my opinion as to which nation- 

 ality possesses the most sound tissue as well as the greatest number of men of th^ required stature 

 and development, I frankly confess that I have no idea. The medical records of the office, which 

 are not now in my possession, will show the number accepted and rejected of each, and a reference 

 to them will give this information. If it is meant to ask my opinion in which most frequently 

 occurs that general acumen adapted to military service, it asks for that in which I have no expe- 

 rience. Neither have I any experience that would warrant the expressing of an opinion upon query 

 number nine. 



I view the operation of the enrollment-act as a failure — 



1st. Because there was not nor can there ever be a perfect enrollment under the law, particu- 

 larly jjcnr/iH^/ a draft; it can at best but approximate the actual force of the coimtry. 



2d. Because of the ease with which enrolled and even drafted men escape the burdens of the 

 law by fleeing the country or by dodging from one part of it to another. 



3d. Because its operations flatly ("ontradict the principles upon which it was founded, viz, that 

 all men between certain ages, of sufficient health and strength, owe the Government service, to be 

 rendered when called for, by fair allotment ; for it really compels those only to render it who can be 

 mostcouveuiently seized. 



As the law now stands, the whole responsibility of the enrollment rests upon the Government 

 officials, and is treated by the people as a game of hide andgo-seek, which many [day expertly. 

 If the Government would know its actual force it must keep up an enrollment /» time of peace, 

 and must put the burdens upon the peo[)le; every man should be (;ompelled to present himself to 

 the enrolling officer and not the enrolling officers be compelled to find the man. Each man should 

 be furnished with a certificate of enrollment, or of exemption when over age or aflected with a 

 permanent physical disability ; and the burden of having the actual residence and the enrollment 

 correspond should rest upon the enrolled ; and any man not so enrolled should be liable to serve 

 at least one year in the Regular Army. 



J. A. GROSS, 

 l!kirgeon Board of Enrollment Fifth District of Neic Jersey, 



Newark, N. J., September 23, 1SG5. 



PENNSYLVANIA— FIRST DISTRICT. . 



Extracts from report of Dr. Jajies S. De Benneville. 



* * * My experience in the examination of men for the military service has been 

 obtained while on duty as surgeon of Pennsylvania volunteers at Camp Curtin, Harrisburgh, Pa., 

 in the month of July, 1861, when the organization of the Pennsylvania Reserve Volunteer Corps 

 was being eft'ected, and during a subsequent service of two years and four months as surgeon ol 



