the subject in commenting upon the German recruiting statistics his- 

 torically reviewed for a long period of years observes more than once 

 that the changes in the bodily proportions, chiefly as regards height and 

 the ratio of rejection, must not be accepted as evidence of material phys- 

 ical alterations, but rather as being governed primarily, if not exclusive- 

 ly, by changes in standards of selection. In contrast, a well-known Pres- 

 byterian minister in an address delivered on the occasion of the first 

 Congress on Race Betterment advanced the conclusion that the British 

 recruiting statistics for a hundred years indicated a very considerable 

 diminution in stature and presented otherwise evidence of physical 

 deterioration. The statement was in conflict with the evidence collected 

 by the Inter-Departmental Committee on Physical Deterioration, which 

 drew attention to the opinion of Prof. Cunningham that "perhaps 

 the most unreliable evidence is that which is obtained from the recruit- 

 ing statistics," for, it is explained : 



The class from which the recruits are derived varies from time to time with 

 the conditions of the labor market. When trade is good and employment 

 plentiful it is only from the lowest stratum of the people that the Army receives 

 its supply of men : when, on the other hand, trade is bad, a better class of 

 recruits is available. Consequently the records of the recruiting department of 

 the Army do not deal with a homogeneous sample of the people taken from one 

 distinct class. 



To much the same effect was the evidence of the Director General of 

 the Army Medical Service, Sir W. Taylor, who, according to the 

 report, "most emphatically disclaimed any responsibility for the deduc- 

 tions that had been drawn from the figures published by his depart- 

 ment," and who "appeared to attach very little value to the figures," 

 and in reply to a question calling attention to a passage in the Report 

 of the Inspector General of Recruiting, where that officer speaks of the 

 gradual deterioration of the physique of the classes from which recruits 

 are principally taken, he said, "He is not justified in that. We have no 

 data on which to form that opinion." Unless, therefore, the strictly 

 military nature of recruiting statistics is kept in mind, erroneous conclu- 

 sions are practically unavoidable, for a full understanding of such 

 statistics requires an exhaustive study of army rules and regulations 

 extending over a long period of years, and a reasonably thorough 

 knowledge of the exceptions granted in conformity to the special 

 authority vested in the Adjutant General. 



CONFLICT OF MEDICAL AND NON-MEDICAL CONSIDERA- 

 TIONS IN RECRUITING 

 It may also be pointed out that while non-medical officers of the line 

 employed in connection with the examination of recruits are not 

 expected to express a medical judgment on such defects as errors of 

 refraction of the eye, valvular lesions of the heart, tuberculosis of the 

 lungs, Bright's disease, or other obscure internal affections, they are 



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