How Young Men's Health Varies, Depending on Where He Lives, July 6, 1919

To read the entire newspaper article or study the graphics, you can download and enlarge the page or go to the site online New-York tribune. (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, July 06, 1919, Page 6, Image 71. Image provided by Library of Congress, Washington, DC. Persistent link: https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030214/1919-07-06/ed-1/seq-71/

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….