SUIIGEON.S' REPORTS — IOWA FIRST DISTRICT. 455 



and leaves almost notliiiif,' to the jiulsmcnt of the surgeon. Generalities were mostly expunged, 

 and causes of exemption brought under .specitic titles, and all that the surgeon could do was to 

 decide that a person had or had not some one of the disqualifying disabilities enumerated, and hold 

 him to service or discharge him accordingly. As nearly as jMyssible, all rules connected with mili- 

 tary discipline should be sjiecilic ; and the officer who executes them should do so at all hazards, 

 without the care of exercising private judgment. It will occasionally work a hardship to some per- 

 sons inflexibly to observe military regulations, but, in the main, the result will work the greatest 

 good to the greatest number. There are cases of dratted men who are evidently not tit for active 

 field duty, but which do not come directly within the provisions of paragraph 85, and the men con- 

 sequently are held to service; yet it is better to send a few of this class forward than to give an 

 unreasonable latitude by which hundreds fit for service may be discharged, and thus escape the 

 obligations due the Government. In the very nature of things, it is impossible to fix any purely 

 arbitrary standard without occasionally damaging the individual or the Government, yet there are 

 some features of paragrai)h 85 which could be still improved ; and the views and recommendations 

 here presented are the result of very careful study in the practical execution of the law. 



Section 3. Epilepsy. — To sustain a claim of exemption on account of epilepsy, the aflidavitof a 

 "physician who has seen him in the disea.se during the last six months" previous to fhe draft is 

 required. Now, it is well known that after a series of attac-ks has taken place, and the friends of 

 the patient are made to understand the utterly incurable nature of the disease, the physician is 

 no longer sent for, and the friends manage the case themselves. In multitudes of iustances, it would 

 be impossible to furnish the affidavit required, from the fact above stated. It is recommended that 

 after the words " by the board " in section 3, there be inserted '• in case this cannot be obtained, by 

 the affidavit of five citizens of the same township that they have seen him in tlie disease within a 

 year." If not this, some other clause should be added to protect the Government as well as the 

 individual. If camps were established at all draft headquarters, a man claiuiing to be subject to 

 epilepsy could be detained a few weeks, and in all probability, from the novelty and excitement of 

 the situatio'i, an attack would occur, and the surgeon could then properly discharge him. In one 

 case, the required i)roof could not be furnished, and the man was sent to draft rendezvous. He was 

 discharged by the august body authorized by the Adjutant-General's Office (General Orders No. 7G.) 

 Then came their report rs board of inspectors to the provost-marshal of this distiict ; then an order 

 from the Adjutant-General, through the chief mustering ofiicer, for a statement of all the expenses 

 incurred in drafting and sending forward the man ; then a circular from the assistant adjutant- 

 general to the surgeon, demanding an explanation, and inquiring whether or not his pay should 

 not be stopped to indemnify the Government for the expenses. 



In another ease, a man reported and alleged epilepsy, but could not present the required proof; 

 he would have been held to service, but, fortunately, had an attack in the street in the presence of 

 the .surgeon. Another returned to his home on the usual five days' furlough, and, to make assur- 

 ance complete, took \\\i lodgings with his family-physician, had an unmistakable fit in a day or two, 

 and returned with the requisite proof. Not to enlarge the illustration, it would be well to admit, 

 in case the affidavit of a physician could not be secured, the affidavit of the neighbors who under- 

 stand the case. 



Section 4. Decided atrophy of a Umh. — To this should be added the qualifying phrase " that man- 

 ifestly disables the person from pursuing any equally laborious occupation in civil life." There 

 were cases of atrophy so decided that tlu^ limb was four inches less in circumference than the sound 

 member, and yet the person performed all the labor of a farm, and not until after he was drafted 

 and discharged did the" most intimate neighbors know that he had any disability. 



Section 5. " Organic diseases of interval organs,'" dc. — This should be stricken out entirely. The 

 whole subject is eml)raced in section 0, under the broad term " manifest permanent physical dis- 

 ability." There can be no possible danger of an abuse of these sections. The regulations require 

 of surgeons, (circular letter of Dr. J. II. Baxter, surgeon-in-chief, December 8, 1804,) "iu all cases of 

 exemption for permanent i)hysical disability, the specific disease or infirmity should also be stated 

 under the head of remarks in the medical record book and monthly medical reports." A strict com- 

 pliance with this order entirely supersedes the necessity of the specific items in section 5. For 

 example, incipient consumi)tion, at first a cause of exemption, is no longer a convenient disejise for 



