utterance to that short and medium sized men are in the main stronger 

 and more suitable for military service than tall recruits, or at least this 

 conclusion is not the fact, according to Schwiening, for Germany 

 and Austro-Hungary. 



RECRUITING STATISTICS OF FRANCE 



The recruiting statistics for France extend over a long period of 

 years, but there have been so many changes in rules and regulations 

 that conclusions require to be arrived at with extreme caution. There 

 has apparently been a decrease in the proportion of recruits below the 

 minimum standard, but the available data are of more or less doubtful 

 intrinsic trustworthiness. The rate of rejections on the ground of 

 entire unfitness is, as previously stated, relatively low for France com- 

 pared with Germany, but the difference is probably more attributable to 

 lax rules and regulations or to the urgent necessity of bringing the 

 authorized strength of the army to its full quota rather than to a 

 superior physique or physiological condition. In 1901 the provision as 

 regards minimum stature was removed and recruits even below 154 cm. 

 were accepted. It is explained that in consequence of changes in the 

 rules and regulations by 1902 the proportion of accepted recruits had 

 increased to 87.3 per cent., and the high rate was obviously indicative of 

 the urgent demand of the army to make use of the largest possible 

 proportion of the available recruiting material. During 1906-10 the aver- 

 age ratio of rejections on account of entire unfitness for military service 

 was 9.6 per cent, for France, having been as high as 14.8 per cent, for 

 the military district of Rennes and as low as 7.1 per cent, for the 

 military district of Nancy. 



During the period 1907-10 the ratio of rejections for all causes was 



9.8 per cent., of which 3.3 per cent, was on account of general debility ; 

 1 per cent, on account of diseases of the nervous system; 0.8 per cent, 

 on account of diseases of the eye ; 0.36 per cent, on account of diseases 

 of the ear and 0.2 per cent, on account of diseases of the respiratory 

 organs. The data are not in sufficient detail to justify definite conclu- 

 sions and they are complicated by the fact that the French figures are 

 given separately for those entirely unfit and those useful for auxiliary 

 military service, which constitute 4.2 per cent, of those rejected for all 

 causes. In more detail, it may be said in this connection that combining 

 the two groups of the entirely and the largely unfit for military service 

 the rejection rates for the period 1907-10 were as follows: Diseases of 

 the bones and extremities, 2.4 per cent. ; physical weakness or debility, 



1.9 per cent.; tuberculosis, 1.2 per cent.; varicose veins, 0.9 per cent.; 

 errors of refraction, 0.8 per cent. ; other diseases of the eye, 0.6 per 

 cent, and diseases of the heart, 0.5 per cent. Rejections on account of 

 hernia amounted to 0.4 per cent, and of goitre 0.1 per cent. 

 Retrospectively the statistics for France cover the period 1873-1910, 



57 



