434 surgeons' reports — Illinois-^— second district. 



ILLINOIS— SECOND DISTRICT. 

 Extracts from report of Dr. Aakon Lewis. 



* * ♦ The Secoud Congressional District of Illinois is composed of the counties 



of Winnebago, Boone, McHeury, Lake, Kane, and De Kalb, and is bounded on the north by the 

 State of Wisconsin, on the east by Lake Michigan and the counties of Cook and Du Page, on the 

 south by the counties of Cook, Kendall, La Salle, and Ogle, and on the west by the counties of Lee 

 and Stevenson. Population, 125,563; number of square miles, 3,175. Winnebago County is 

 watered by Rock River; Boone County by the Kishwakie River; McHenry County by the Fox 

 and Kishwakie Rivers; Lake County by the Des Plaines River; Kane County by the Fox 

 River ; and De Kalb County by the Kishwakie River and Big and Little Indian Creeks. The banks 

 of the streams are generally bold, allowing tillage. The Rock and Fox Rivers aftbrd aluiost 

 unlimited water-power, and the other streams mentioned furnish water-power to a limited extent. 

 The district is emphatically a prairie district, with timber upon the streams. There are a number 

 of beautiful lakes in the counties of Lake and McHenry. 



The diseases of this district are of a bilious character; there will be found in every neighbor- 

 hood low, wet, marshy lands, where vegetable decomposition is going on at certain seasons of the 

 year. Bilious fevers and agues do not prevail to as great extent as they did some fifteen years 

 since. Enteric or typhoid fevers have been prevailing to some extent, and in some districts have 

 become epidemic, but are always marked with symptoms of miasmatic influence. Hepatic diseases 

 of a chronic character are more numerous than formerly. Phthisis pulmonalis is much more fre- 

 quent than in years past. Neuralgia in all its degrees of intensity exists, and prevails in some por- 

 tions of this district to such an extent that I have been disposed to call it an epidemic, existing in 

 neighborhoods where bilious fevers and agues have been most prevalent in years past. The 

 inhabitants of this district are principally agriculturists, and are a hardy and industrious race of 

 men, emigrants princijially from New England, New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio; there are, 

 however, a number of settlements of Irish, Germans, and Swedes. 



A greater ratio per thousand has been disqualified for military service from hernia, confirmed 

 malignant sarcocele complicated with disease of the testes and spermatic cord. Secondarj- syphi- 

 lis, with all its constitutional symptoms, I have found to exist to a greater extent than I had any 

 idea of prior to my examinations as surgeon of this boaid. I have found it to exist among farmers 

 and young men of our. large towns to an alarming extent. The reasons why hernia and malignant 

 sarcocele disqualify for military service are manifest. Constitutional syi)hilis, after the glandular 

 system has become obviously diseased, should exempt, as exposure to damp and cold, with the 

 food and irregularities of a soldier's life, would increase and aggravate the disease to such an extent 

 as to cause him to be useless to the Government, for in fact such a man is useless in any capacity. 

 As to my views in reference to the different sections of paragraph 85,1 have otten thought the sur- 

 geon wlio arranged the sections of said paragraph was liighly qualified for the work, and had 

 arranged and condensed in a most beautiful manner all the disqualifications for military service, 

 so that in almost every case where the surgeon was satisfied that a man was not duly qualified, he 

 could bring the disease within one of these sections. However, I have found some difficulty in a 

 few cases of epilepsy, (section 3;) as many persons who have epilepsy do not call upon a physician, 

 or may not have done so within the in-evious six months, I have often thought that other witnesses 

 should be accepted as adequate. 



Section 12. Total loss of sight of right eye. — I have thought this section should be qualified ; if 

 the expression was, " the eye being so greatly impaired as to leave no doubt of the man's unfitness 

 for military duty," it would be better. » # # 



As to the number of men that can be examined in a day with accuracy, in my opinion it can- 

 not exceed sijtyfire or scrciiti/. I have examined more, but our manner of examining has been 

 strictly in accordance with the rules, and I found it reipiired more time to strip the men and 

 reclothe them than it did to examine them; and as the law required us to allow but one in the 

 room at a time it made the exiuninations more tedious. 



