According to this table, out of every 100 recruits examined in the 

 German army, 19.3 were rejected for general debility, which includes 

 retarded bodily development, weakness of the body as a whole or of 

 any of its parts in consequence of previous illness or injury, and minor 

 diseases or deformities not likely to result in permanent incapacity for 

 military service. This group also includes deficient bone or muscular 

 development, deficient chest development and lung capacity, etc. In the 

 usage of other countries these defects or deficiencies are separately 

 enumerated, and the proportion of such rejections in the German army 

 considered as a group cannot, therefore, be compared or contrasted 

 with the combined figures for other armies, on account of the absence of 

 corresponding army rules and regulations governing with approximate 

 precision the designation or classification, as the case may be. It, 

 nevertheless, is extremely significant that the proportion of rejections 

 for this group of causes and conditions should be so large in the 

 German army regardless of universal physical training co-ordinated 

 to military requirements. 



CAUSES OF REJECTION IN THE AUSTRO- 

 HUNGARIAN ARMY 



The next table is for the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and for the 

 decade 1894-1905. It is limited to the first three age groups of the 

 attained minimum stature of 153 cm. 



PRINCIPAL CAUSES OF REJECTION IN THE AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN 



ARMY, 1894-1905 



Per Cent. 

 Examined 



1. General Bodily Weakness 43.0 



2. Varicose Veins 3.3 



3. Intestinal Displacement (Hernia) 3.1 



4. Goitre 2.8 



5. Flatfoot 2.4 



6. Deformities of Skeleton and Skull 2.2 



The term "bodily weakness" as used in the Austrian statistics is 

 obviously a large group of miscellaneous causes and conditions, each 

 and every one of which should be separately stated to permit of a 

 definite assignment in a strictly scientific classification. Such a group 

 of causes or conditions serves no medical and military purpose, but 

 merely tends to preclude finality of judgment and accuracy in com- 

 parison. It is also a practical certainty that such a grouping permits of 

 the inclusion of a large number of ill-defined causes or conditions; 

 but it justifies, in the main, the assumption that a very considerable 

 proportion of those examined for service in the Austro-Hungarian army 

 are of a sufficient degree of physical inferiority as tobe unfit for the stress 

 and strain of military life. It, however, must not be overlooked that in 

 countries where the military age may begin with 18 in the case of volun- 



69 



