436 SUKGEONS' REPORTS ILLINOIS SIXTH DISTRICT. 



ILLINOIS— SIXTH DISTRIOT.' 



Extracts from report of Dr. Robert M. McArthur. 



♦ * * My experience iu the euroUmeiit aud exiuniiiation of men for military 



service extends from May 18, 1863, to May 30, 1865. During tbis time there were examined either 

 by myself or my assistant, and in almost every case in my presence, abont ten thousand men. Of 

 these about six thousand claimed exemi)tion from draft; about three thousatid three hundred were 

 recruits and substitutes; and seven hundred aud three were drafted men. 



The Sixth District of the State of Illinois comprises the counties of La Salle, Grundy, Will, 

 Kendall, Du Page, and Kankakee, and embraces a territory of about three thousand six hundred 

 square miles. The surlace of the country, with the exception of the valleys and bluffs along the 

 rivers, is generally of gently undulating prairie, of a rich dark loam, varying in depth from one to 

 several feet. The principal rivers, consisting of the Illinois, Fox, Des Plaiiies, Kankakee, and 

 Du Page, are lined by belts of timber, and their numerous tributary streams have many groves 

 along their courses which enliven and beautify the prairie. 



The endemic diseases of this locality during the summer aud fall aie of miasmatic origin, and 

 are generally of an intermittent or remittent type of fever. Their cause, in my opinion, is the rapid 

 growth and speedy decay of vegetable matter. Typhoid fever prevails late in the fall and winter 

 months, and seems to be superseding the common miasmatic diseases in localities that are under a 

 high state of cultivation Where thrift and cleanliness abound, I can hardly venture on an opinion 

 as to the cause of this disease, not being able to trace it to any specific poison. Whatever the 

 cause may be, the nervous system is made to sufl'er in a powerful manner from its effects, and may 

 we not attribute its origin in some degree to the enervating influences of the high temperature of 

 the summer months? 



Pneumonia exists to some extent in the winter, and is the prevailing disease of the spring, 

 induced, no doubt, by cold and wet. 



This district is chiefly settled by people from the Eastern States, yet almost every European 

 nation is represented here. As regards the general character of the inhabitants, 1 am happy in 

 being able to report that for intelligence and morality, for enterprise and industry, they will com- 

 pare favorably with any district in the State. 



Although ours is chiefly an agricultural district, wheie grain and stock raising is the principal 

 business, yet there are many beautiful towns and villages interspersed along the streams and lines 

 of railroads, and also along the Illinois and Michigan Oanal, (about seventy-five miles of which runs 

 through our district,) where manufacturing is carried on to considerable extent. We are on the 

 northern boundary of the great coal-fields of Illinois, and coal-mining in some localities creates an 

 extensive branch of commerce. 



The diseases and disabilities under my observation which most of all others have disqualified 

 men for military service were hernia, insufficiency of teeth, and fractures. Hernia I have found to 

 exist mostly among the German portion of the inhabitants, and I attribute this condition to excessive 

 manual labor at an early age. Insufficiency and caries of teeth I have noticed generally among the 

 native-born citizens, and the cause of this disability, iu my opinion, is the common use of acids aud 

 saccharine matter as condiments of food. The corrosive action of acids in destroying the enamel 

 of the teeth is a fact fully established, and from the general use of acetic acid and the formation of 

 an acid in the mouth by fermentation of vegetable and animal mattei- lodged about the teeth, I am 

 led to regard this agent as the most destructive ami the most direct ; while in the use of sugar an 

 acid is formed in the stomach, and, eliminated through the system, it has an indirect influence in 

 l)roducing the same result. 



In relation to the frequency of fractures, I would say that they seem to be incident to the pur- 

 suits of an agricultural people. 



In my judgment, the ditt'crent sections of paragraph 85, Revised Regulations Provost-Marshal- 

 General's Bureau, are, as a whole, calculated to prevent the entrance into the ranks of the. Army 

 of men physically disqualified for military service, to guard against fraud and against insufficient 



'No rciiorts wvyv r('C(!iv(.'(l t'rnui flic tliird, t'diirtli. an<l lit'tli districts. 



