surgeons' reports — KENTUCKY — SEVENTH DISTRICT. 381 



met, the board are compelled to taJce Mm, though they may be fully convinced that he is a rascal, 

 or a scoundrel, or a thkf, or all together, or that he intends to desert as soon as he gets his money. 

 They should be allowed to exercise their discretion to some extent in reference to accepting a man 

 offered as a substitute merely because he is physically sound, and should be allowed to report him 

 as a fraudulent, worthless villain, if he does not come before them with satisiactory evidences of 

 where he was born, where he has lived, what his calling, and what is his character for honesty and 

 integrity. His faee, manner, and answers to questions should be allowed also to have their full 

 weight in the category of evidence upon which he is to be accepted or rejected. In nine cases out 

 often, rascality and villainy can be read with unerring certainty in the face, manner, and talk of a sub- 

 stitute if he be a scoundrel. The provost-marshal and commissioner might hear and determine all 

 these points in one room, while the surgeon is busily examining in another. It is believed that but 

 few desertions would take place if some such plan as the above were adopted. The great object of 

 the law should be to get not merely suhsfitutes, but honest ones, and the board are better judges iu 



this matter than any one else can be. * * * 



E. r. BUCKNER, 



Surgeon Board of EnroUmcnt Sixth IHstrict of Kcntv.vlcy. 

 Covington, Ky., June 15, 1805. 



KENTUCKY— SEVENTll DISTRICT. 



Extracts from report of Du. S. F. Gano. 



# « # In June, 1863, I received my appointment as surgeon of the board of 



enrollment of this congressional district, and at the period of my discharge from the service I had 

 examined over four thousand men. 



The Seventh Congressional District of Kentucky embraces eleven counties, occupying the central 

 portion of the northern division of the State; is about one huudred miles in length, and between 

 fifty and sixty miles in width ; its greatest diameter being north and south, between the thirty- 

 seventh and thirty-ninth degrees of latitude, in the most populous and productive portion of the 

 State, known widely as " the Uue-grass region:^ It contains a population of about one hundred and 

 forty thousand, one-fifth of which resides in towns and villages. Lexington, the headquarters of the 

 district and the largest city iu it, has a population of ten thousand. The number of enrolled men at 

 the first draft was about fifteen thousand. 



Geological formation.— TMs consists of the Lower Silurian deposit, composed almost wholly of a 

 blue semi-erystallinc limestone, which is easily disintegrated by atmospheric agencies. Its strata 

 are nearly horizontal, presenting anticlinal axes, but an endless variety of gentle swells, that give 

 this portion of the State its characteristic features. The eye of the traveler detects at once, from 

 the peculiar undulating surfiice, as well as from the characteristic vegetation, the superficial limits 

 of the Lower Silurian formation in Kentucky. In the cultivated portions, the blue-grass asserts its 

 supremacy by excluding from the soil all other grasses with which it may come in contact, retain- 

 ing its vitality during the most destructive droughts, and its verdure during the frosts of winter. 

 It'thus furnishes at seasons when all other grasses fail a most nutritious food for the flocks and 

 herds for which this region is famous. The soil, being neither calcareous, argillaceous, nor siliceous, 

 but a combination of the constituents of these three, is adapted to the growth of every kind of 

 vegetable for which the climate is suitable. 



Thedistrictis watered by the Kentucky and Licking Elvers and their numerous tributaries, 

 and by creeks formed by the union of " branches" having their origin in the springs that everywhere 

 abound. It is without'lakes, swamps, or morasses ; the largest bodies of standing water being arti- 

 ficial ponds of small extent, formed by arresting the course of the spring-branch on its way to the 

 creek or river ; consequently diseases induced by miasmatic exhalations from stagnant water are 



infrequent. 



Its forests are principally of maple, hickory, oak, ash, beech, and poplar. The climate is variable, 

 but sufficiently temperate to admit of outdoor exercise during almost the entire year. 



