surgeons' reports ILLINOIS — SEVENTH DISTRICT. 439 



that some surgeons, with a view to greater accuracy, prefer that the tape should be carried rouud 

 above the nipples; and others that it should pass round over them. Both of these modes, in my 

 judgment, are objectionable, because the tape embraces the margins of the muscles mentioned, 

 together witli the fatty development of the breast, which I think interferes to some extent in obtain- 

 ing with accuracy the true extent of the mobility of the chest. But the greatest objection to both 

 these measurements is that the mobility of the chest at neither of these points is as great as the 

 measurement below, by from a (piarter to a half inch, as a rule, and therefore does not give as 

 correctly the true extent of mobility or vital capacity as the latter measurement does. It will be 

 seen by reference to the for.-going table, giving the measurement of the chest, height, and age, 

 that the average measurement lit inspiration gives 35 inches, and the average measurement at 

 expiration gives 32^ inches, the difference being 2^ inches, which is the average extent of mobility 

 or vital capacity of' the chest of the 1,593 men examined ; and as this mobility, or vital capacity, is 

 considered by surgeons to be of considerable importance in the examination of recruits for the 

 Army, I will take this occasioa to give some further statistics in relation to the subject, together 

 with my experience in my late examinations. 



I will, in the first jdace, give a statement made by Mr. Hutchinson, who is a high authority on 

 such subjects. He states that " he found at a temperature of 60° Fahrenheit, 225 cubic inches to be 

 the average vital capacity of a healthy person five feet seven inches in height. For every inch of 

 height above this standard, the capacity is increased on an average by eight cubic inches ; and for 

 every inch below it is diminished to the same amount." This curious result arrived at by Mr. 

 Hutchinson is confirmed by Surgeon-General Hammond, and others, but is questioned by Surgeon 

 Tripler, who says: " Our observations have led us to the conclusion that the mobility is rather 

 inversely as the circumference of the chest than directly as the height of the person, as if 

 increased mobility was designed to make up for less capacity as indicated by a less diameter; 

 so that the quantity of air consumed does not differ greatly in different men with healthy lungs 

 whatever may be their relative stature." " Others assert that for every inch in height the mini- 

 mum chests increase half an inch in mobility, the medium chests somewhat more, and the maxi- 

 mum five-eighths." 



My own observations fail to sustain either of these positions. In the first place, I went over 

 the surgeon's books, and collected all the men that I had examined of six feet and above, as shown 

 in the following table ; they being 73 in number : 



Table No. 2. 



Measurement of chest 



Average measurement at inspiration, inches 36; 5 



Average measurement at expiration, inches 34. 25 



Average mobility, inches 2. 25 



Number examined. 

 Number of chests measured 73 



Height. 



Average height of all measured, all between 6 feet and 6 feet 6 inches, 



inches 72. 84 



Age. 



Average age of all examined, the age being from 18 to 44 years, years. . . . 27. 8 



The vital capac^ity determined by the mobility of the walls of the chest seems to me to be quite 

 as accurately obtained as by measuring the expired air after a full inspiration. If so, the result 

 obtained and set forth in the above table is a complete refutation, as far as it goes, of Mr. Hutchin- 

 son'.^ rnle given above, for it scarcely makes a start in that direction. The mobility, or vital capa- 



