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essential in every soldier, and its components are of course known to all medical men; deficiencies and irregularities will be more fully considered when investigating each individual organ. There is connected with this portion of the subject another point of material consequence, requiring reflection and special remark: that is, the branch of the service for which the recruit is enlisted, Artillery, Cavalry, or Infantry.

The Royal Foot Artillery are the largest framed and most muscular men of the three branches of the service, the nature of their employment requiring the exercise of strength more than activity; lifting weights, moving heavy guns, and working in the arsenal, tend to increase their muscular proportions. The chief characteristic of a gunner ought to be strength. Observation at a parade at Woolwich will shew how well this distinguishing feature is observed. In no army in Europe is it possible to find finer men than the Royal Artillery; they are preeminent for this characteristic.

A heavy cavalry soldier is above the ordinary height, and, whether on foot or horseback, is remarkable from his size and general appearance; an awkward or ill-made man rarely rides well, a tendency to corpulency or undue developement in any way is objectionable; round shoulders are most unsightly; knock-knee, if prominent, is objectionable in any soldier, but in none more than a heavy

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The object ought to comprise a selection of men at least moderately symmetrical.

In the choice of light cavalry, the institution of still greater circumspection is admissable, as the standard is much lower, nearer the average height, the facilities of obtaining recruits is far greater, affording a more extensive selection, admitting, if sought for, the acquisition of the stamp of men most eligible for this branch of the service. A frame manifesting strength and muscular developement is absolutely necessary in a light cavalry soldier; yet the nature of his duties in every respect, especially in the instances of not having to carry weight, and being but little subject to loss of rest or exposure at night, are vastly less productive of fatigue or other consequences injurious to the constitution than those of infantry, wherefore to the same extent it does not appear so essential. A dragoon's chief value consists in his being a good horseman, wherefore a figure manifesting activity, suppleness, and ease of motion, ought to be the object of acquisition.

The absolute necessity of such an arrangement when extensively pursued, or the vague unlimited standard that any medical officer may picture to himself as the requisite proportion may be open to objection; but such is erroneous, as the possession of these characters can only be insisted on as desirable; and though possibly it would not be judicious to imply a censure for passing a healthy man for a light dragoon who is inactively made yet not deformed, still

it appears to me very easy to understand the spirit of a suggestion to be particular that a proportion, indicating the presence of the features most necessary for the fulfilment of his employment, shall exist; and that it is a consideration recommendatory in recruits for each branch of the service that the general appearance of the man should, as much as possible, associate with his peculiar duties.

Assuming that equal attention is devoted to ascertaining the freedom from disabilities in each branch of the service, the stamp of man calculated for an infantry soldier, from the nature of his employments, comprises a combination of characteristics which must always be recollected as necessary and not merely desirable; he ought to be compact, strong, but not awkwardly made; the figure preserving a due proportion between the trunk and members of the body, combining the evidences of muscular power with the attributes of a good walker, or at least possessing a figure displaying no deficiency in this most necessary trait.

"V. The more common causes of rejection are enumerated below:

"1.-Feeble constitution: unsound health, indications of former disease, as leech-bites, traces of blisters, nodes, glandular swellings, or other symptoms of scrofula, &c. &c."

The general appearances indicating a feeble constitution or unsound health, when discoverable at

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

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

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