of a commission, he is eligible to and may receive one. It is, therefore, a matter of the first importance, that the Medical officer should carefully scrutinize the physical and intellectual qualifications of the recruit. The ineffective man weakens the ranks he was intended to strengthen. He serves but to fill the hospitals, incumber the trains upon a march, consume supplies, and call for the services of the effective and able-bodied to minister to his infirmities when his own services are wanted in the field. Let the Surgeon then bear in mind that it is the number of bayonets in the field, and not the number of names upon the rolls, that determines the strength of an Army, and he will be less anxious to pass numbers of recruits, than that those whom he shall have certified to be free from defects shall not compromise his professional reputation by their failure in the hour of trial.

It is not an easy thing for the inexperienced Surgeon to examine a Recruit properly. Unless he pursue some systematized method, important points will be apt to escape him. The British regulations prescribe the particular routine according to which the examination is to be conducted. Our own regulations give no such instructions, but leave the method of examining the recruit to the discretion of each individual Medical officer.

We shall first endeavor to point out the most important defects which demand the rejection of a recruit, and then to sketch a method of conducting the examination, by which, if followed out, these blemishes can scarcely escape detection.

We must, however, admit that in some instances the most careful and experienced observer will be deceived. The arts of the dissembler may cover up important defects for a time. He has every advantage, and he will unscrupulously avail himself of his knowledge. We meet with so many cases in which the baldest falsehoods are so pertinaciously asseverated in order to carry out a premeditated imposition, that, harsh as it may appear, we must caution the Surgeon and Recruiting officer against relying at all upon the declarations of a recruit, when any other means of arriving at what we wish to ascertain can be commanded.

When a knave succeeds in his scheme, his defect will probably discover itself very soon, and then we have the means of discharging him before he shall have gained much by his frauds.

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All lank, slight, puny men, with contracted figures, whose development is, as it were arrested, should be set aside."*

It is evident such men can not bear the fatigues of war. It is to effectiveness in war that we are always to look, for "war is the normal state of the soldier-peace is for him the temporary and exceptional condition." Ever since the addition of Texas, New Mexico, and California to the territory of the United States, our soldiers have been constantly engaged in war of some sort. The privation and exposure necessarily incident to the occupation of new and uncultivated countries, and the harrassing wars constantly carried on with the savage tribes that infest them, demand a higher standard of physical strength in the soldier, than would be required in any war we could be engaged in with a civilized enemy. The diminutive, half-developed recruit is totally unfit for the service our soldiers have to perform.

Intemperate habits are a positive disqualification in a

recruit.

Although ardent spirit has for many years been excluded from the regular ration of the soldier, and although Suttlers are prohibited from keeping it in their stores, still, even in places the most remote from the settled parts of the country, the whisky-dealer hangs upon the flanks and rear of the camp, ever ready to minister to the depraved appetite of the drunkard. The intemperate soldier is never to be relied upon; first in a mutiny and last in a battle, he is, at once, an example of insubordination, and a nuisance to his comrades.

It is difficult oftentimes to detect the habitual drunkard. We must rely, to some extent, upon the man himself for information upon this point. Men frequently present themselves who exhibit evident signs of a recent debauch. It is frequently impossible to say whether this is the habit of

their lives, or merely a temporary lapse, induced, perhaps, by misfortune, disappointment, or youthful folly. To reject summarily in such a case, would frequently lose to the service a good and efficient soldier. It is positively enjoined by the regulations that every man shall be sober when enlisted. In cases, then, where there is room for doubt, a suspension of a final decision should be resorted to for a sufficient length of time, to enable the man to recover from the effects of a mere temporary debauch.

But when the man has long indulged in habits of intemperance, it is almost sure to be indicated by persistent redness of the eyes, offensive breath, tremulousness of the hands, attenuation of the muscles, particularly of the lower extremities, sluggishness of the intellect, and frequently an eruption of rum blossoms on the face, and purple blotches upon the legs. Men presenting such signs of intemperance as these should be rejected.

In addition to the personal observation of the Recruiting officer and Surgeon as to these indications of intemperate habits, the recruit should always be made to say distinctly whether he is a drunkard or not; and his answer should be recorded on the spot (in the manner to be hereafter indicated), for purposes of accurate reference, should a drunkard succeed in imposing himself upon the service, notwithstanding the careful observance of all the requisite precautions upon the part of both the Recruiting and Medical officers.

The man should also have the free use of all his limbs. There are many causes preventing a free use of the limbs, but fortunately their effects may be readily recognized by the Recruiting officer, even without the assistance of a Surgeon, The most frequent of these causes are fractures, dislocations, anchylosis, paralysis, permanent, contraction of the flexor muscles, chronic rheumatism, enlarged bursæ, varicose veins, cicatrices of burns, ulcers or wounds, toes crowded, overlapping, redundant or defective, ingrowing toe-nails, corns, bunions, splay foot, etc. We merely mention these things here, reserving a more extended examination of them for another place.

When a Recruit is inspected, he should be made to execute such motions as will serve to point out any immobility of any of his joints. For this purpose various modes have been suggested.

"Many of the causes which impede the performance of the animal functions are visible to the eye, and may be estimated to the full extent a priori; others only discover themselves upon trial in great exertions. As it is only from uniformity of power under exertion that union of action can be assured, and as this is the point which essentially contributes to success in war, a standard for the measure of the powers of exertion among recruits is not less necessary in sound reasoning for the construction of a military instrument, than a standard for the measure of the height of the stature. In order to ascertain this important point, the writer conceives it to be proper that every person who enters into the Army should be brought to trial in walking, running, leaping, climbing hills, and traversing irregular and broken grounds. It may be fairly admitted that a full grown person who is not capable of marching at the rate of four miles in the hour, with firelock and knapsack, is not eligible for a soldier destined for field service. If his wind fail in walking briskly up hill, or if his joints be weak, so that he does not move with speed and safety over broken grounds, it would be unwise to enrol him on the lists of an active army."*

If it were practicable to institute this mode of examination into the integrity of the organs of locomotion, there can be no question its results might be implicity relied upon. The improved methods of modern tactics, and the introduction of the severe drill of the Chasseur à pied into our service, requiring a greater degree and more uniformity of physical power and activity, would seem to demand some such ordeal. By similar means the integrity of the functions of the heart and lungs would also be ascertained, and many other advantages might be pointed out. But inasmuch as in cities and towns where most of our recruits are enlisted, we have not

*Jackson op. citat.

the means of instituting so severe a test, we must content ourselves with a less perfect mode. The method prescribed in the Regulations of the British Army, seeming to be as well adapted to the end in view as any we know of, we here transcribe them:

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Upon entering the Inspection Room, the Recruit is to walk a few times pretty smartly across the apartment for the purpose of showing that he has the perfect use of his lower extremities. He is then to be halted and set up in the position of a soldier under arms, with the knees about an inch apart, and examined both in front and rear from head to foot. Should no material defect be discovered during this survey, the examination may go on. The Recruit is then to perform in imitation of the Hospital Sergeant the following evolutions: To extend the arms at right angles with the trunk of the body-then to touch the shoulders with the fingers-next to place the backs of the hands together above the head; in this position let him cough, while at the same time the Examiner's hand is applied to the rings of the external oblique muscles. Let the Inspecting officer examine the spermatic chord and testes, then pass his hands over the bones of the legs. The Recruit is next to be made to stand upon one foot and move the ankle joint of each extremity alternately; when any doubt is ascertained respecting the efficiency of this joint, or any part of an inferior extremity, he should be made to test his strength by hopping upon the suspended limb for a short period, and the size and aspect of the corresponding joint or part of the opposite limb should be accurately compared. He is next to kneel on one knee, then on the other, and subsequently upon both knees. Let him then stoop forward and place his hands on the ground, and while in this position it ought to be ascertained whether he is afflicted with hæmorrhoids.

He is then to extend the superior extremities forward for the purpose of having his arms and hands examined, and with this intention he is to perform flexion and extension of the fingers and to rotate the forearm."

The systematic observance of this method of examin