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From the New York Tribune, July 6, 1919
How the
First Million Draft Recruits Measured Up Physically
The first adequate physical survey in half a century was made
possible when the selective draft brought before medical examiners a quarter of
a billion men. Of the 2,510,000 men between the ages of 21 and 31 who were
examined by local boards, 730,000, or 29.1 per cent, were rejected on physical
grounds.
It will be a surprise to many Americans that the malady raging
with greatest frequency among men of military age is pes planus, and affliction that strikes one man out of every five.
And yet these men, despite their flat feet (for that is what the army surgeons
mean by pes planus), manage to get
along very comfortably in civil life, although they make poor soldiers.
The surgeon general has revealed some illuminating data in his War
Department Bulletin No. 11, just issued, about the physical condition of “the
first million draft recruits.”
In his introduction, Major General M.W. Ireland, the surgeon
general, says:
“The data are only a fraction of all that have been accumulated in
the Section of Medical Records. The pressure for information renders a report
desirable now. It is expected that later a report will be published combining
all information gathered concerning two million men accepted and sent to camp,
about half a million men who were rejected by local boards and several scores
of thousands who were discharged from the army for disability. In the final
treatment it is proposed to take up many matters that are considered only
provisionally here.
“Some of the conclusions of this study, even though provisional,
may be succinctly stated. The severity of the physical examination standards
varied during the periods under consideration….
“…the Provost Marshal General concludes that during the first four
months of mobilization about one-third of the men who were physically examined
were rejected on physical grounds and during the following eight months about
one-fourth of such men were rejected….
“About 10 per cent were rejected on account of the two
communicable disease groups—tuberculosis and severe cases of venereal diseases.
“…. Because one-third or even one-fourth of males 20 to 30 years
of age are physically unfit to fight it does not follow that so large a
proportion are handicapped in appreciable degree for civil life. Combatant
forces have to move on their feet often great distances each day and carry a
load of 40 pounds or more on the back. A man who weighs only 100 pounds,
however healthy and however strong he may be for his size, can rarely do this.
But his small size may even be an advantage in civil life.
“Again, many a man with a tendency toward flatfoot or hernia do
his work in civil life well and always enjoy excellent health and be really
unaware of any weakness, but his presence may handicap combatant troops….”
“The amount of venereal disease present seems also somewhat
inversely correlated with density of population. Thus, for New York City the
ratio is 13 per 1,000; for Chicago, 22; for all cities, 26; for rural
districts, 30. There are, to be sure, fluctuations in the amount of venereal
disease found which are independent of the size of the cities, such as the
large amount, 21 per 1,000 found in Philadelphia, and the small amount, 13 per
1,000, found in Boston. The one fact that stands out clearly is that there is
about one-fifth more venereal disease to be found in the rural districts than
in the cities.
On the other hand, chronic alcoholism is, on the hole, more characteristic
of cities than rural district, though both New York and Chicago give a ratio of
10 per 1,000, as contrasted with 16 for all cities.
Drug addiction is strikingly more prevalent in the large cities,
and, above all, New York City than it is in rural districts. Indeed, as stated
above, New York City seems to be the centre of this vice.
“Epilepsy is commoner in rural than urban districts; however, in
some cities, like Boston, it is far in excess of the rural districts.
“Mental deficiency is more than twice as common in rural than in
urban districts, and more than twice as common in the average city as it is in
the largest cities, like New York and Chicago. In these cities the rate is 0.6
per 1,000, in urban districts in general, 1.2, and in rural districts, 2.8
….
“Defects of vision are commoner in urban than in rural districts….
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