surgeons' reports KENTUCKY SECOND DISTRICT. 369 



answer best. He bear-s opium well, and this is the most valuable ajjent we possess in the inflam- 

 matory diseases of the negro. He also bears stimulants well, and will take them with eagerness 

 when he objects to everything else. He will not eat anything while sick, unless urged to do so, 

 though it is necessary in the treatment of most of the diseases he is subject to. In zymotic diseases, 

 he should be treated with restoratives from the beginning, and a close watch kept over him at all 

 times that be be kept conifortable, for, if left to himself, he will close up his room, and cover him- 

 self with all the cover at his command, even in the warmest weather, and will wrap most of it 

 around his head, if his feet have to bo uncovered to accomplish it. If allowed to sleep before the 

 fire, he will cover himself as above, and turning his head to the fire will leave his feet out in the cold. 

 His mind is always dull in disease, and frequently troubled with superstitious notions that have 

 been handed down to him by tradition. One is that he may be poisoned or " conjured," as he calls 

 it, by some mysterious person of his race ; and that no one can cure him except some person possess- 

 ing power to remove disease inflicted by these conjurers, and that ho will certainly die unless 

 relieved. These superstitious notions are fast disappearing among Kentucky negroes : but when 

 they do exist, the illusion should be removed as quickly as possible, as they tend to prolong his 

 illness, and frequently to destroy his life through his taking some supposed antidote for his poison. 

 There are many other facts that might be mentioned that would be useful to surgeons unacquainted 

 with the distinctive peculiarities of this race of men in health and disease. I only submit these re- 

 marks as suggestive of the importance of eaiploying, as medical men and officers to colored regiments, 

 men who have been familiar with the colored man's idiosyncracies, iu order that bis diseases may 

 be successfully treated. 



The average height of the white men examined at this office is two inches greater than the 

 average height of the negro. A great majority of the examinations embraced in this report were 

 Kentucky colored recruits and substitutes, which will account for the average height in Kentucky 

 being less than in other States. All those examined from free States were white men, and many 

 from slave States other than Kentucky were white men. In some of the States and countries, the 

 number of examinations was from one to four or six only, and the men examined were generally 

 selected as acceptable substitutes, and were of more than medium size. It will not be correct 

 to take these few men as an average of the men in the State or country of which the few are 

 natives. * # * 



Many improvements have been made in the original enrollment-law, but some changes are still 

 needed. 



The enrollment-sheet should contain a complete descriptive list of every enrolled man, together 

 with pertinent remarks opposite each name, so that there could be no possibility of one man pre- 

 senting himself for examination in the name of another. 



Boards of enrollment should hold a session once a year, or oftener, in each countj' iu the dis- 

 trict, and a penalty should be attached to the failure of any enrolled man to present himself for 

 examination. 



One reason for this change is apparent : there being no steamboat nor railroad transportation 

 from remote counties to headquarters of many of the districts, men who know that they have physical 

 disabilities that will exempt them should they ever be drafted will not often, even if they be 

 pecuniarily and physically able to do so, make the trip at their individual expense and labor, when 

 they know that, if compelled to come when drafted, transi^ortation will be iumished and their 

 exemption be certain. The Government is thus put to the expense of furnishing transporta.tion 

 both ways ; and, the names of these men not being stricken off before the draft, the quota is made 

 up from an excessive enrollment. 



J. W. COMPTON, 

 Surgeon Board of Enrollment Second Dintrict of Kentuclcy. 



OwBNSBOROUGn, Ky., Mmj 20, 18G5. 



47 



