4J8 surgeons' reports — ohio — eighteenth district. 



evident abilit}' and genius of the present Chief Medical Officer of the Provost-Marshal-General's 

 Bureau, whose uniform nrbanity in the discharge of his duties cannot fail of high appreciation by 

 the recipients of his kindness, and the value of whose services his country must surely recognize 

 and honor. 



So far as my experience warrants an opinion in reference to nationality iu the selection of 

 recruits for military service, the utterance of the old poet, Spenser, is as true now as then. Says 

 he: "I have heard great warriors say that in all the services which they have seen abroad in 

 foreign countries they never saw a more comely man than an Irishman, or that cometh on more 

 bravely to his charge." * * * 



With the physical qualifications of the colored race for military service, my experience furnishes 

 such limited observation as to render an opinion worthy of but little consideration. The convic- 

 tion arising froui au examination of a few hundred of various shades of color is that the negro 

 proper is well adapted for military service, but that the mulatto and all varieties of mixture of 

 black aud white blood have degenerated physically, being very often found with tuberculosis and 

 other niauifcstations of imperlect organism. 



The enrollment-law as it now stands, so far as I am able to judge, needs very little alteration 

 to promote the successful accomplishment of its object. * * * 



L. M. WHITING, 

 ISurgeon Board of Enrollment /Seventeenth District of Ohio. 



Alliance, Ohio, Jmic 8, 1865. 



OHIO— EIGHTEENTH DISTRICT. 

 Extract from report of Dr. H. C. Beardslbe. 



* * * My appointment as surgeon of the board of enrollment of the Eighteenth Con- 

 gressional District of Ohio bears date May 11, 1863. I entered at once upon the iluties of office 

 but made no examinations of men for the military service until the month of October following. 

 I had no previous experience in making such examinations, but I prepared myself as well as I was 

 able by carefully studying the manual prepared by order of the War Department and distributed 

 to examining-surgeons. • 



I have examined six thousand five hundred recruits, substitutes, drafted, and enrolled 

 men. * # » 



The examination of a recruit is quite different from that of an enrolled man or a drafted man, 

 and the difficulties to be met and obviated are also quite different ; the one seeking to conceal the 

 existence of a disqualifying infirmity which would prevent his entering the service, the other 

 seeking to aggravate infirmities actually existing, and even simulating those which do not exist, as 

 a means of escaping liability to service. Still, each kind of experience contributes to perfect the 

 competency of the examiner. 



The Eighteenth District of Ohio lies on the south shore of Lake Erie, and is composed of the 

 counties of Lake, Summit^ and Cuyahoga. The counties of Lake and Cuyahoga border on the 

 lake. The county of Summit lies south of Cuyahoga. From the northeast corner of Lake County 

 to the northwest corner of Cuyahoga is about sixty miles. From (he lake-shore of Cuyahoga to 

 the south line of Summit County is somewhat more than fifty miles. The district is traversed by 

 three rivers — Grand River and Chagrin, which pass through Lake County, the latter touching 

 some of the eastern townships of Cuyahoga, and the Cuyahoga River, which is the largest of the 

 three, aud which traverses the county which bears its name. Neither of these is navigable except 

 for a very short distance. The two former form respectively the harbors of Grand River or Fair- 

 l)ort and Cleveland. 



The rock formations of the district are a compact sandstone, a sandstone of somewhat coarser 

 and more open texture, conglomerate, and, underlying these; a soft clay-slate, which, when exposed 

 to the air, is soon decomposed into a tenacious blue clay. At jioints in each of the three counties, 

 the sandstone is extensively quarried for building-material. The fine and more comi)act varieties 

 are very largely used in the construction of houses and of public buildings, and the coarser 



