surgeons' reports MARYLAND FIFTH DISTRICT. 359 



the opinion that they are of all the soldiers in our service the most capable physically. Thoymay, 

 indeed, jjossess a more abundant vitality ; but I am confident that the Irishman's constitution could 

 not brook the southern summer. His system is irritable and inflammatory, and lie would aptly 

 fall a victim to congestive or malarial fever. 



The Germans, Dr. Bartholow observes, are the least desirable recruits, being less capable 

 of enduring fatigue, more frequently subject to hernia, varicose veins, deformities of the feet, &c. 

 My experience is very limited; but I am inclined to agree in opinion with the doctor. The Ger- 

 mans are also the most frequent malingerers. Bo people are more in love with ease, and hence 

 will more often jjiactice fraud to pass, either from the ranks into the hospital, or from the hospital 

 to their final discharge. 



The colored race. — The impression appears to prevail universally that the colored race make 

 good soldiers. All military men with whom I have conversed unite in this opinion. Experience 

 has taught us that they are more easily drilled and mass better; that they are more obedient to 

 their ollicers, both from disposition and habit; that they possess courage, but do not bear a hand- 

 to-hand conflict as well as the whites, though they stand artillery- firing better ; and that they are, 

 when yielding or diRjiosed to flight, more readily recalled, or brought back by example, because 

 they are essentially imitative, as well as more obedient. They are both secretive and cunning, 

 qualities often of great service; but they lack individuality, and are hardly to be trusted with 

 expeditions requiring presence of mind in uncertainty or unexpected changes in the position of 

 aflairs. • In endurance, they are not equal to the whites, certainly not at the North; at the South, 

 possibly they may be, though a recent publication states that in those British possessions in which 

 colored soldiers are employed, they possess less physical stamina than the whites, the mortuary 

 statistics standing as follows : deaths, whites, ten per cent.; colored, twelve and one-half per 

 cent. This difference may be caused by the fact that the more arduous duties are ifnposed on the 

 latter class. The writer also states that cousum])tion is more prevalent with the colored than 

 with the white race. My own observation enables me to say that the colored man more readily 

 gives up to sickness, even of a mild character, and much more slowly does he rally from the debil- 

 ity consequent upon disease. Further experience will, I think, place the colored soldier in a 

 position below the white in regard to his physical qualities. I am disposed to believe that he can 

 never be more than at times a useful auxiliary ; that the Government will never find it feasible to 

 support a permanent corps of colored troops. 



Enrollment-laws. — * * * I would propose the following change in the act 



under consideration : A board of enrollment to be composed of two persons, one of whom shall lie 

 • a licensed and practicing physician ; that the United States shall be divided into districts, of which 

 the District of Golumbia shall constitute one, each Territory of the United States shall constitute one 

 or more, as the President shall direct, and each congressional district of the respective States as fixed 

 by law of the State next preceding each enrollment shall constitute o/«;/t«//of an enrollment-district ; 

 that the two congressional districts in charge of a board of enrollment shall be contiguous, and, when 

 possible, within one State; that the enrollment of each district shall be made in alternate years; that 

 each congressional district shall be divided by the board as nearly as may be into eighteen sub-dis- 

 tricts, in each of which the board shall hold a session of two weeks' duration each alternate year, no 

 session of enrollment or exemption being held during the months of July, August, and September, 

 these three months being devoted to office business. Due notice shall be given by the board of 

 the time and place of meeting in each sub district. All persons above twenty years shall report to 

 the board for enrollment; the omission so to do to be punished by a fine. The surgeon of the board 

 shall examine each person at the time of enrollment, and shall give to all who are permanently 

 disabled a certificate of exemption. The board shall ascertain the age of each person enrolled as 

 accurately as possible. Persons changing their residence shall report the same to the board of 

 enrollment of the district which they are leaving, plainly stating to what district and sub-district 

 they intend removing, or be subject to a fine. The board shall forward to the Secretary of War, 

 on the 30th of September of each year, an exact account of the whole number enrolled, the num- 

 ber enrolled during the twelve months previous, and, as nearly as may be, the number stricken 

 from the list by reason of death or disability ; this to be accompanied by a report from the surgeon 



