the age of puberty, are usually symptomatic of organic disease, which would, on careful examination, be most likely observed; still this is not invariably the case, as some cachexia, syphilitic, mercurial, strumous, or otherwise, may occasion the appearances to a greater or less degree; the existence of the general effect is alone disqualifying without proceeding further. Often in such habits there is the assisting diagnosis of indications of former disease, the traces of medical treatment such as leech bites, blisters, issues, setons, cupping, and the signs of bleeding in the veins of the arms; some of these marks, however, may exist under very different conditions, and although they are enumerated as alone causes of rejection, it does not appear to be the intention to instruct that a fine robust lad is unfit because bearing evidences of a few leech bites: it is especially a case where the medical officer is intended to use that discretionary power allowed him; still that discretion ought to be exercised with the greatest care and consideration, as the chief indication must always be the accompaniment of symptoms or signs of the least organic or constitutional disturbance; if either can be traced even in any degree, it would be imprudent to approve a man; but if associated with all the characteristics of rude health, it seems to me a great error to conclude all such traces as necessarily disqualifying. Were leech bites discoverable on the extremities, they would of course attract attention to the locality, and suggest the subjection of

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the age of puberty, are usually symptomatic of organic disease, which would, on careful examination, be most likely observed; still this is not invariably the case, as some cachexia, syphilitic, mercurial, strumous, or otherwise, may occasion the appearances to a greater or less degree; the existence of the general effect is alone disqualifying without proceeding further. Often in such habits there is the assisting diagnosis of indications of former disease, the traces of medical treatment such as leech bites, blisters, issues, setons, cupping, and the signs of bleeding in the veins of the arms; some of these marks, however, may exist under very different conditions, and although they are enumerated as alone causes of rejection, it does not appear to be the intention to instruct that a fine robust lad is unfit because bearing evidences of a few leech bites: it is especially a case where the medical officer is intended to use that discretionary power allowed him; still that discretion ought to be exercised with the greatest care and consideration, as the chief indication must always be the accompaniment of symptoms or signs of the least organic or constitutional disturbance; if either can be traced even in an

the position so circumstanced to minute examination; if accompanied by characters of complete integrity I would pass the man, remarking the fact in the attestation. The integrity of the limbs, by the exercise of motions and accurate investigation, can almost invariably be determined; so that the mark of a blister situated on the extremities need not attach much more serious importance, especially as such means of treatment are usually applied in young men calculated for soldiers, for the effects of injury; however, marks of medical treatment, connected either with the trunk or limbs, are obviously of diminished seriousness when the period of application is remote, local or constitutional delicacy not being appreciable; and it is not to be lost sight of, that however remote, even in youth, the application of leeches may be, the marks usually remain though the affection for which applied may have long ceased. Blisters, on the contrary, are demonstrative most frequently, though not invariably, of recent disease; a man may have been many times blistered without a trace remaining, but the use of leeches, if only on one occasion, leave recognizable evidences, so that an individual without a trace may have undergone much more local treatment by blisters than one who bears evidence of leech bites. Hence, then, it would appear that the mark of a blister ought generally to suggest more serious consequence, particularly when occurring on the trunk, as it manifests a recent morbid state which may afford a difficulty in deter

mining the integrity of the organ. That the recognition of the recent or remote period of the application of local remedies is of great value in estimating their seriousness when situated on the trunk and over organs important to life is easily understood, since they may have been used at a distant period in acute disease from which the individual has completely recovered. When existing in these situations, great caution should be exercised; but if a medical officer be perfectly satisfied that the appearance was not recent, and that the man was clearly in rude health, his constitution untainted, the proportions of the figure symmetrical, and organs sound, it would be too dogmatical to assume that all marks of treatment upon the trunk are to be an unqualified cause of rejection. Nevertheless, though this ought not exclusively to apply, these marks, when they exist in some regions, should be viewed with still greater gravity than in others; thus under the clavicles, along the spine, or over the right hypochondrium, the observance of marks of medical treatment manifest the possible tendency to most disqualifying diseases, which duties or exposure may arouse. When such traces are found over the cardiac region, the man should be always rejected; they point out that disease once existed there, and it is more than likely that some sequelæ resulted and are persistent, although possibly not plainly detectable unless exertion or other circumstances favoured their observance, or time, by

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