surgeons' KEPORTS — KENTUCKY NINTH DISTRICT. 385 



tliirty miles, iiiul on the Ohio about one Iinndred and two miles; the Ilig S.mdy forming its eastern 

 and the Ohio its northern bou'idary. 



From the Ohio lliver, along its western boundary, it includes Mason, Fleming, and Montgomery 

 Counties; and thence, on its southern boundary, it includes Bath, Powell, MagofBn, Floyd, and 

 Pike Counties. There are sixteen counties in the district. Of these. Mason, Fleming, Montgomery, 

 and Bath baA'e a rich limestone soil, and very generally partake of the characteristic of the well- 

 known blue-grass region of Kentucky. The reaiaining twelve counties are generally rough, hilly, 

 and mountainous, abounding in coal and iron-ore. In these counties there are some very rich inter- 

 vale or bottom lands, lying on the Ohio and Big Sandy Eivers, and the principal Streams passing 

 through them, which are Little Saudy, Tygart's Creek, Kinnacouiek and Licking Rivers. The 

 principal productions are corn, wheat, and tobacco. Pig-iron is the chief material of manufacture. 

 Flour, whisky, and jeans are manufactured to some extent. 



In Mason, Fleming, Montgomery, and Bath Counties, the labor has heretofore been principally 

 l)erformed by slavies. In tbe other counties, this has not been the case; there being comparatively 

 very few blacks in them. In Greenup, Boyd, Carter, and Lewis Counties there are twelve furnaces 

 for the manufacture of charcoal-iron. Each furnace employs from three hundred to five hundred 

 hands, though some of them have been idle during the last four years. With the exception of 

 these men, and of a few hundred employed in the coal-oil mines, and those engaged in the professions 

 and trades — which coMiprise a very small part of the population — the inhabitants of tiiis district 

 are purely agricultural in their habits and occupations. 



Along the Ohio Eiver, and the principal streams passing through the district, tlie prevalent dis- 

 eases are intermittent, remittent, or bilious-remittent fevers, and such diseases as are produced by, 

 and are consequent ui)ou, malarial causes. Indeed, to some extent, this is the case over the whole 

 district. What is commonly termed typhoid fever here has seemed to me very often to be a remit- 

 tent fever of a typhoid grade; and affections of the liver, lungs, bowels, &c., are, in many instances, 

 more or less modified by the same cause. Dysentery and diseases affecting the bowels are common 

 in the limestone counties. It has been thought to be owing to the water. The general and rather 

 immoderate use of tobacco here, we were led to believe, had an injurious effect upon the health of 

 the i)opulation, and |)erliaps in some degree impaired tbe i)hysical qualiQcations of the men. 



From JIays Lick and its vicinity, in Mason County, a larger number of tuberculous cases in i)ro- 

 portion to the other diseases presented themselves than from any other part of the district. I 

 have not as yet been able to ascertain any cause for this, and it may have been purely accidental. 



Excepting hernia and injuries growing out of the war, if there are any particular diseases or 

 disabilities which have disqualified men for the service, they may, I believe, be attributed to 

 malarial causes. 



In regard to changes in the different sections of paragraph 85, there are others who have had 

 far larger opiiortunities of ob.servation, and whose suggestions will prove of greater value than any 

 that could be made by me. 



Making the examination and keeping the record, (as I myself always did,) I do not believe any 

 one could make an average of more than ten men per hour, where the work was honestly and accu- 

 rately done. 



After a surgeon has had considerable experience in the examiuatiou of men, and a man comes 

 before him stripped, he detects almost at a glance whether there is any defnct that would disqualify 

 for the service, and it is only iu obscure cases, difficult to decide upon, that he is detained in his 

 examination; consequently, if he had a clerk to record the residts, and there was no delay in bring- 

 ing the men before him, he would be able to examine a large number. 



Frauds were not much practiced at this office. A good many deserters came into remote parts 

 of this district, and hired themselves out to work as common laborers. After working for some 

 months, (some for nearly a year,) they would enlist as recruits for bounty oi- as substitutes lor pay, 

 and would present themselves here for examination. In some places, it was no difhcult matter to 

 get proof that they were well known, had lived iu the district for a long time, had never been in the 

 service, &c. It is believed that a few of these were received, but the cheat was soon discovered. 

 Nearly all of them wore foreigners — mostly Canadians. Whenever one of these men presented 

 himself for examination, it was very safe to conclude he was a deserter. lie was required to give 

 a minute historv of himself for two or three vears back, and to explain how he came here. If this 



