indications of former disease, weak or disordered intellect, skin affections, injuries of the bones of the head, impaired vision, diseases of the eyes or eyelids, deafness or disease of the ears, impediment of speech, want of a certain capacity in the chest, indications of pulmonic disease, deformities, weakness or old injuries of the limbs, curvature of the spine, hernia, or a tendency to it, varicose veins, fistula, ulcers, whether of old date or recent, and any disease for which surgical treatment is necessary at the time of inspection. With a view to indicate the manner in which an observance of these tests is sure to affect the health of the public, I solicit attention to a few statistics having reference to periods in which this country being at peace with all others, no unusual drain on the population was opened for the requirements of the army. 1. The subjoined table, extracted from the work by Marshall, shows the number of recruits examined and rejected in the years 1817, 1818, and 1819; that is, immediately subsequent to the peace after the battle of Waterloo, viz.: IRELAND. SCOTLAND. ENGLAND. Years. Ex- Re- Ratio rejected Ex- Re- Ratio rejected Ex- Re- Ratio rejected amined. jected. per 1000. The general results of the above are to the effect that during the three years embraced there are records of 9893 recruits who were medically examined, of whom 2706 were rejected, or a proportion of 273.5 per 1000, this being at a time when, as first observed, our war establishments had just been reduced. Unfortunately, the tables only contain records of young men enlisted in Ireland and Scotland, but in so far as they were concerned, the average number examined in each of the years noted was 3297, that rejected 902, equal to a ratio of 273 per 1000. 2. Let us now refer to a period of profound peace, when the requirements of the army were comparatively small, and which had for a considerable time been preceded by a state of tranquillity. The three years from 1835 to 1837 inclusive, were such a period, and the following table indicates the numbers of recruits examined and rejected during it. From these figures we learn that in a total number of 30,507 recruits examined, 9477 were rejected, being a ratio of 310 per 1000; the yearly average being 10,169 examined, and 3159 rejected, or a proportion of 310 per 1000. 3. In the subsequent tables I am unable to separate the statistics of recruiting in each of the divisions of the kingdom; I note, however, that the third period, to which I solicit attention, is that of the Crimean war, including the years 1854 to 1856 inclusive, when the exigencies of the service demanded a great drain upon the recruitgiving portion of the community. 4. This was the case also in the three years of the Indian Mutiny, from 1857 to 1859. 5. In this period, from 1864 to 1866 inclusive, there was profound peace and plenty at home, when work was abundant, and when the condition of the lower orders may be said to have been very favorable. Let me now give the following table, which is intended to indicate the state of recruiting and of rejections during each of these periods. (See opposite page.) From these figures we learn several important particulars, not the least of which is the circumstance that although, as might have been anticipated, the ratios of rejections among recruits examined is considerably greater during times of peace than when war is in progress, this ratio has been very considerably greater in the fifth period than it was in either the first or second. This will be rendered more apparent by a recapitulation of the ratios rejected in each of the different periods enumerated, viz. : I would point out also, that a remarkable approximation is observable between the ratios of rejections in each of the periods when the Crimean war and Indian mutiny caused their drain upon the population. Before passing to an examination of the causes of rejection, may be remarked that the recruits are themselves roughly selected by the recruiting sergeant before they undergo the doctor's scrutiny, it hence they form a favorable sample of the physical state of the civil population. If we now consider the precise nature of the disabilities on account of which recruits are for the most part rejected, they are found represented in the subjoined table, which, although restricted to the three years from 1864 to 1866 inclusive, is sufficient for our present purpose, namely: Here, then, by this and the preceding table, we learn the ratio of men rejected from the army and thrown back upon civil life, and also the disabilities on account of which they are so thrown back. We learn, for example, that in the three years last enumerated an annual average number of 26,518 recruits were examined, of whom 10,268 were rejected for physical disabilities; in other words, a proportion equal to 387.20 per 1000 inspected laboured under some form of disease, on account of which they were thrown back upon the general population, thus, I venture to think, indicating an extent of bodily imperfection and actual disease among the young men of the United Kingdom of which few readers are aware. I will not stop to give in detail the causes of all those rejections. I will, however, indicate the more important of them, especially such as permanently unfit their subjects from earning their living, and giving them the ordinary means of providing against disease and want, and those that are directly or indirectly calculated to impair the health standard of the masses. Out of every thousand lads who are rejected, 38 are so on account of syphilis, 26 by scrofula, 14 by pulmonary consumption, 111 by defective sight and affections of the eyes and eyelids, 83 by malformed chest and spine, 57 by rupture and tendency to that disease, 104 by fractures and contractions, 16 by skin diseases, and 52 by general unsoundness of health. Thus we account for 601 of the thousand, leaving the remainder, namely, 399, to be made up by miscellaneous diseases and disabilities. Doubtless a certain proportion of these men do obtain employment in civil life. It is a matter of great difficulty to trace the career of many; but it may, I think, be assumed that, considering the competition for employment which exists in these islands, the weak and incapable must be left behind in the process of selection thus created, and being so left behind must fall into conditions of actual disease, propagating it in many instances among others, equally unfortunate as themselves, and finally becoming units in the hospital or pauper population, or in some cases sinking into the criminal classes. I would, in the next place, select a few statistics from the table just given, in order the better to indicate the ratio of rejections on account of affections of the heart and blood-vessels, more especially by aneurism and disease of the heart, namely: Thus it will be seen that a very considerable amount of dross in the shape of disease is thus left in the mass of the population, filtered, as it were, from the army. Permit me now briefly to refer to some statistics of recruiting during two periods of sanguinary war, and when the losses of our troops by disease were very great. The first includes the years 1854, 1855, and 1856, or that of the Crimean war; the second embraces 1857, 1858, and 1859, namely, that of the Indian mutiny. In the first of these the average annual number of recruits examined was 34,875, of whom were rejected a ratio of 8481,243 per 1000; the entire number of men enlisted during that eventful time being 104,625, of whom were rejected 25,444. In the next three years, namely, those of the mutiny, the average annual number of recruits inspected was 45,160, of whom were rejected a ratio of 10,929,-242 per 1,000, the total number examined in the period being 135,481, |