surgeons' EEPOKTS OHIO SEVENTEENTH DISTKICT. 417 



The miuiber of men that maj' be carefully examined in a day does not exceed fifty nnder the 

 moist favorable circumstances. 



It has not been my lot to meet with many instances of attempted fraud in any class of sub- 

 jects presented for examination in this district of a character to require anythiuf? but the most 

 common sagacity to guard against them. Not a few slightly deaf men among the enrolled and drafted 

 were unable to hear us speak in an ordinary tone of voice, but were speedily detected by ordinary 

 means or by reference to some acquaintance who was nearly always at hand to detail his previous 

 history. In some instances, when the fraud was well sustained under examination, a strong inti- 

 mation boldly uttered that it was a case for exemption, arul while preparing a proper blank to 

 issue a certificate to that effect, the sudden inquiry in a low tone for his luime to insert in it, would 

 bring an instantaneous reply. 



Malingerers simulating defects of vision sometimes give theexaminiug-surgeon no little troulilo. 

 It is true that the oi)lithalmoscope readily detects all opacities or molecular changes resulting from 

 inflammatory action. So we can detect the anomalies of refraction, as myopia and hypermetropia, 

 by the ophthalmoscope. The objective diagnosis of cerebral amaurosis is not so easy. When a man 

 claims total blindness of one eye, and the i)upils retain unity in direction in fixing an object, we 

 may be certain that he is trying to deceive us. There may, however, be cerebral amblyopia short 

 of distinguisbiDg objects distinctly, and yet the pupils may be properly directed in fixing objects. 

 Under such circumstances, a careful investigation of the condition of the i)upil should be made. 

 The surest method, however, I know of is the plan recommended by Liebreich. The subject is 

 made to believe that the inspection of the affected eye is concluded and that the healthy eye alone 

 is to be examined. Both eyes are kept open, and a prism of 10°, for example, is placed in front of 

 the well eye, with veils above or below. If the other eye is really attacked with amaurosis, the 

 image obtained by the prism is simple, but if the blindness is simulated the patient sees two 

 images, which he, not knowing its significance, immediately proclaims. 



But the most frequent attempts at fraud were made by boys in the assertion of a false age. 

 This became, indeed, a matter of no small annoyance and not unfrequeutly of great importance, as 

 the otlice was fairly assailed during the pending drafts with a storm of applications for enlistment 

 on the part of those whose claims to attention were matter of doubt. The jealous care of parents 

 and guardians was insufficient to prevent their sons and wards from constant escapes from home 

 under the stimulus of large bounties, the attractiveness of military trappings, and the seductive 

 tongues of ambitious recruiting-officers; and multitudes were so demoralized as to make the most 

 solemn asseverations of legal age when they could show the proper measurements, though in the 

 course of one, two, or three days, or later, the parents or guardians would appear with the most 

 irrefragable proof of a minority of one, two, or three years. Hence, in my records, the statements 

 of the recruit (as already stated) appear for my own protection and as evidence of the moral status 

 of the youth, while in the column of "Kemarks" appears "youth" as a cause of rejection, proof 

 having been adduced, subsequent to the record, of his statement as to age having been false. Expe- 

 rience has shown me that it is a very difficult matter to decide as to the precise age of an individual 

 between sixteen and eighteen years ; but it is not difficult to determine that even at eighteen there 

 is generally a want of that development which is so essential to the efficiency of the soldier. At 

 twenty years, there are such unequivocal signs of maturity in the increased thickness of the bones, 

 the strength of the joints, the expansion and firmness of the muscles, and the appearance of the 

 wisdom teeth, that but little doubt can be entertained, either as to the age or ability; and in my 

 humble judgment this should be fixed as the minimum age for military service, especially as this 

 war has shown that abundance of men can be obtained for any emergency in, this country without 

 a serious depreciation of its ijopulation. * * * 



xVnother difficulty experienced during all the early part of my term as examining-surgeou was 

 the constant feeling of uncertainty as to the proper mode of performing many important duties, a 

 feeling generated by the conviction that there should be uniformity in the work of similar officers 

 throughout the land ; and for that purpose appropriate books, blanks, and an acknowledged medi- 

 cal head within the Bureau to which they were attached and to which they were professionally 

 responsible, should be provided. This very unpleasant and unprofitable state of things, I am 

 hai)i)y to state, disappeared eventually under the genial influence of the benign visitation and 

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