surgeons' reports OHIO SEVENTEENTH DISTRICT. 415 



ings tbe militia has recently been called out iiuder tbe sanctiou of tbe goveruor of the State. It 

 was from this class of citizen.s that came much of the trouble duriug the pending drafts; but, 

 liapiiily, the loyal portion of the people were enabled to till their quotas, and thus avoid the most 

 dreaded efl'ects of treason in our own midst — actual war. 



The j)ortion of the district lying upon the Tuscarawas Eiver aud its tributaries is more or 

 less subject to annual visitations of zymotic disease ; the form ordinarily assumed being periodic 

 fever, but frequently presenting the typhoid character, in addition to the continued progression of 

 morbid phenomena denominated fever; the victims presenting the peculiar rose-colored spots, 

 diarrhoea, epistaxis, tympanitis, &c., which are adjudged pathognomonic of typhoid lever. The 

 same remarks hold good with reference to the lauds in the vicinity of the Mahoning River, flowing 

 ^long the northeastern border of the district. In all other portions of the district, the diseases 

 incident to a residence are only such as are common to the most healthy regions of the earth, 

 Diseases of the throat and lungs are common, and more so than previous to the appearance, within 

 a very few years, of diphtheria, which has become more or less the terror of all parts of this district, 

 as well as of the country generally. No part of the district seems liable to epidemics; with the 

 exception of two seasons of very limited epidemic dysentery, the api)earauce for a few days of 

 epidemic cholera, and occasional visitations of scarlatina, &c., no epidemic has been observed 

 during a thirty years' residence iu any part of the district ; and over a large part of it, intelligent 

 physicians assure the writer that in an experience of more than forty years they have never known 

 one. 



During the autumn and winter of 1863, there was a very general prevalence, perhaps properly 

 called an epidemic, of acute rheumatism throughout the district, which undoubtedly gave rise to a 

 great number of applications lor exemptions from military service by reason of rheuumtism and 

 cardiac complaints. Of the latter, a great number were presented, aud found to exhibit more or less 

 convincing evidence, on careful examination, of recent endocarditis, pericarditis, aud other inflam- 

 matory conditions of the heart. Especially was this true of Jefferson County duriug the examina- 

 tions for correcting the enrollment in the summer of 18(J4. 



In Carroll County, there is no assignable cause of disease either in its physical geography or 

 iu the employment or habits of the inhabitants. It is hilly, well cultivated, aud its farmers sober 

 and industrious. The great cause of exemption from military service in this county was loss of 

 teeth. So certain was this to appear on approach of an enrolled man from that couuty, that, like 

 the hippopotamus now on exhibition here, the great display was openinq the month. A quiet inquiry 

 into the cause of this phenomenon led to the conviction that, as quite a large number of the people 

 there were violently opposed to the war, and entertained atvon^ personal objections to the military 

 service, unscrupnlous dentists had been their resource against conscription to a surprising extent. 



Other than what has been said, I know of no diseases incident to this district. The cause of 

 the fevers is undoubtedly the all-potent malaria. What it is I do not know ; I do know there is 

 heat, moisture, aud vegetable decomposition, all of which seem to be necessary to its production. 

 I believe the material agent in the production of what is known as malarious fever is a microscopic 

 cryptogamous growth, abounding in the soil of malarious localities, which, being distributed by 

 atmospheric agencies, is absorbed by the human subject, and acts as a poison with such eflects as 

 are well known. 



To assign tbe trite '• reason why any I'articular disease or disabilities have disqualified a greater 

 ratio per thousand from military service'' is a task involving an immense field of iuquiry ; and in 

 reference to some particular disabilities, disqualifying the greatest "ratio per thousand," it can in tiie 

 present state of our knowledge probably be accomplished by no living man. For instance, the 

 ratio per thousand disqualified for military service by loss of teeth is "greater." To say that impair- 

 ment of nutrition occurred during the time of the formation of his teeth, is probably to state the 

 reason why the man was liable to tbisdisqualiflcation for military service after that susceptible portion 

 of the organism was exjiosed to the causes which involve its general and rapid decay; for as the 

 teeth are formed, provided they are not impaired dur'ng that i)rocess, they remain with very sliglit 

 change during life. Being impaired, and unlike oth( r tissues of the body, even those identical in 

 structure, Hot endowed with recuperative powers by tbe agency of which an injury sustained by 

 them may be repaired, they are in many instances so susceptible to the action of corrosive agents. 



