of general debility, accounting for 19.3 per cent, of the total number 

 examined, the first cause of importance is rejections on account of 

 diseases or impairment of the heart and circulatory organs, accounting 

 for 3 per cent., followed by minor defects but of sufficient military 

 importance to justify rejection, also equivalent to about 3 per cent., and 

 recognized defects and deformities of the extremities, equivalent to 2.9 

 per cent. Of the remainder of principal causes of rejection, flatfoot 

 accounted for 2.1 per cent., hernia for 2.1 per cent., errors of refrac- 

 tion for 2.0 per cent., varicose veins, etc., for 1.8 per cent., and physical 

 deformities, chiefly spinal curvature, for 1.8 per cent. Goitre in the 

 German experience is of relatively slight importance, accounting for 

 only 0.4 per cent., varying, however, between a minimum of 0.3 per 

 cent, in the Prussian army and 1.2 per cent, in the army of Wiirttem- 

 berg. Bad teeth accounted for only 0.21 per cent., rheumatism and gout 

 for only 0.17 per cent., and corpulence for 0.14. 



Of special military significance is the relatively high rate of rejec- 

 tions on account of flatfoot, which varies from a minimum of 1.1 per 

 cent, for the Bavarian to a maximum of 2.4 per cent, for the Prussian 

 army. Disease of the lungs caused a rejection rate of only 1 per cent., 

 with but a slight range in variations in the rate for the fundamental 

 constituent armies of the German Empire, or, respectively, Prussia, 

 Bavaria, Saxony and Wurttemberg. 



The changes in the rejection rate during recent years in the German 

 army experience, or specifically during the period 1904-10, are not 

 suggestive of an improvement in the physical type or the disease resist- 

 ance of the recruits, since the ratio of the unfit for military service has 

 gradually increased from 48.7 per cent, in 1904 to 54.3 per cent, in 

 1910. The increase has chiefly fallen upon the groups of rejections for 

 general debility, from 18.2 to 22.3 per cent., diseases of the heart 

 and circulatory organs, from 2.7 to 3.8 per cent., and diseases of 

 the lungs, from 0.9 to 1.4 per cent. The rejections on account of 

 deficiency in stature declined from 0.73 per cent, to 0.61 per cent. 

 These changes, however, in the recruiting results can no more, as 

 elsewhere observed, be relied upon as evidence of physical deterioration 

 than that, conversely, a declining rate of rejection for specified causes 

 can be safely utilized for the purpose of proving physical advance. 

 The rates are governed primarily by military considerations, which vary 

 with army requirements almost from year to year. The rates are also 

 affected by improvements in methods of physical diagnosis, in connec- 

 tion with which to an increasing extent use is made of instruments of 

 precision, in place of entire reliance upon the objective and subjective 

 symptoms ascertained by non-instrumental methods in physical and 

 medical examination. 



54 



