The French statistics also illustrate clearly the importance of ex- 

 ceptional causes in their effects upon general recruiting results. Thus, 

 for illustration, in the Austrian experience, goitre is the fourth im- 

 portant cause, accounting for 2.8 per cent., but in the French army 

 this condition accounts for only 0.14 per cent. Equally important are 

 the differences in rejections for flatfoot. In the German army this 

 condition accounts for 2.1 per cent, of the examined, in the Austrian 

 for 2.4 per cent., but in the French army for only 0.34 per cent. 



CAUSES OF REJECTION IN THE SWISS 

 ARMY 



The Swiss recruiting statistics are for the period 1901-05, and their 

 results by causes are also on the percentage basis of the examined. The 

 statistics are even more conclusive than those of Germany and Austria, 

 for the purpose of illustrating the importance of exceptional causes 

 or specific conditions, such as goitre, hernia, etc. 



PRINCIPAL CAUSES OF REJECTION IN THE SWISS 

 ARMY, 1901-1905 



Per Cent. 

 Examined 



1. Goitre 6.1 



2. Visual Defects and Errors of Refraction 5.6 



3. Flatfoot 4.1 



4. Below Minimum Stature 3.7 



5. General Bodily Weakness 3.3 



6. Hernia 2.7 



Next to goitre errors of refraction are apparently the principal cause 

 of military unfitness in the Swiss army. There is probably no condi- 

 tion which gives rise to more confusion and error than the examina- 

 tion of the eyes. In some recruiting statistics all visual defects, errors 

 of refraction, as well as eye diseases and even blindness, are combined. 

 This, however, is not the case in Switzerland, where other diseases of 

 the eyes account for 1.7 per cent, of the examined, and blindness of 

 one or both eyes for 0.02 per cent. 



The rejections for failure to attain to the minimum stature in Swit- 

 zerland are of exceptional importance. They clearly emphasize the 

 effect of governing rules and regulations rather than of physical in- 

 feriority, on the one hand, and the actual army necessities on a peace 

 basis, on the other. In the German army the proportion rejected on 

 account of failure to attain to the minimum stature was only 0.08 per 

 cent., against 3.7 for the Swiss army. Evidently either the Swiss re- 

 quirements as to stature are unnecessarily rigorous or unduly high in 

 consequence of the sufficiency of recruiting material to maintain the 

 recruiting strength of the army on a peace basis. 



71 



