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Without hazarding any observations relative to the few arguments and supporters of the dissimilarity of tubercular and scrofulous disease, it will be well to assume a common origin, until the diversity is more generally adopted; and consequently, when a suspicion arises, invariably to direct attention to the state of the lungs, and the confirmatory evidence that may sometimes be there obtained.

I have thus endeavoured, as concisely as possible, to remark upon the incompatibility of a strumous diathesis with the duties of a soldier, from its general effects, from its being so little amenable to treatment, and from its being a most decided, formidable, predisposing influence, liable to be aroused to actual disease by the ordinary exciting causes to which men in the army are exposed. Thus then, if the slightest scrofulous disease be observed, no more definite cause is necessary to determine unfitness.

NODES are generally connected with disease, either syphilitic or mercurial, but it is difficult to assign a cause in some instances, as they are occasionally found of small size on the surface of a bone in healthy robust men. If not associated with, or traceable in any way to, the above conditions, and if of very limited dimensions, occurring in healthy individuals, they should not of themselves necessarily disqualify. The slightest traces of caries or necrosis are usually so apparent as to be at once observed, and their importance so evident as hardly

to require enumeration.

Osseus tumours, when of

any size, must always disqualify for numerous reasons; there is no possibility of saying to what size they may attain, how they may interfere with the free use of a limb, to what they tend, or what the origin.

"3.—Weak or disordered intellect.”

A

This is a most serious objection to a recruit, and to a degree occasioning want of comprehension and memory sufficient to learn drill, to recollect and communicate orders is by no means uncommon. Were the returns of men discharged under three years service available for reference, it seems highly probable that the inquiry would show stupidity to be a prevalent cause of their unfitness for the army. Yet it appears more than likely, if the subject were investigated at the period of enlistment, the admission of such men would be of less frequent occurrence. persistence in questioning and testing the memory and power of comprehension, would usually manifest any deficiency. This is a feature not invariably recollected at the time, and the ordinary casual questions put during the examination can be answered by the most obtuse, thus it often happens that the deficiency is not discovered until the memory and comprehension are exercised at drill. No doubt there are difficulties connected with the subject, or the unfortunate results would be less frequent; this cannot always be attributable to want of care. Dis

ordered intellect, by which some form of moral insanity is referred to, is of vastly less frequency than incapacity, to which attention will be especially directed.

Premising that an inability to comprehend, acquire, and retain knowledge sufficient for the requisite attainment of a soldiers's duties, is the appropriate definition for the disability under considertion, any one reflecting for a moment will easily understand the necessity of these attributes in one who has to thoroughly learn the manual and platoon exercise, the perfect use of fire-arms, and the various details in the changes of position required in manoeuvering, as well as the understanding and transmitting orders on all occasions. On the other hand, it does not follow because sufficient intelligence to acquire the easily comprehended duties of a man in the ranks is absolutely requisite, that one should seek as a necessity for anything more. How far it may be advisable to discharge all men evidencing an incapacity, is a different matter, but the admission of men whose intellect is much below mediocrity seems highly injudicious. Occasionally it happens that questioning recruits does not elicit conclusive information, as such an important event to an individual as his enlistment, appears capable of occasioning, in some instances, an excitement sufficient to stimulate answers that do not attract attention, though stupidity may be ordinarily characteristic. This idea suggests feasibility to me from a belief in

its observance, and from the circumstance of some such cause accounting for the approval of a portion of this class of men, for as was previously observed this cannot always be the effect of carelessness. Were we universally to reject men who answered queries vaguely and inappropriately, many a country lad in England, and more particularly in Ireland, capable of becoming a good soldier, would be lost to the service. Corroborative evidence, to some extent, is derivable from other sources; the expression of the countenance is often a good indication, so likewise is cranial irregularity, of the power of the understanding The most usual, as well as decisive irregularity, is actual deficiency in size.

I purpose, now, to briefly observe how far this can assist the elucidation of the subject; premising, however, that it will be in a limited measure, and altogether subsidiary. The descendants of the Caucasian race are supposed to be the most intellectual and successful in the cultivation of the mind, their cranial developement is said to be larger and more perfect than the Mongolian or Ethiopian. "The Caucasian skull is round and symmetrical, the posterior extremity bears to the anterior the proportion of about three to two," the forehead is high and wide, the lateral portions and occipital complete this tendency to roundness. A large head is considered more consonant with a high order of mental faculty than a very small one, yet it does not follow that such must be the case, or that a very

large head is more influential in the function of inervation than one of a medium size. It is generally believed by physiologists, that the grey neurine which forms the superficies and is disposed in other portions of the brain, is the source of nervous power. Now the extent of this grey neurine must depend on the size and regularity of the convolutions and involutions much more than on the size of the brain itself, which is chiefly produced by the amount of white substance, supposed to be merely the afferent, efferent, and communicating medium of volition. In man the extent of the convolutions and the depth of the sulci vastly exceed those of animals, in many of which they are not perceptible, in others rudimentary, and in all remarkably inferior; in the case of idiots and very old people they are likewise found usually less developed. Some animals have actually larger brains than man, others larger in proportion to their size; but as in these the extent of grey neurine differs but little from the actual magnitude, it is easily understood that the sulci and eminences affording so much a greater surface for the vascular and energetic tissue, man must be pre-eminently superior in the phenomena dependant on the functions of the brain. These conclusions are quite irrespective and irrelevant of the idea of individual faculties or their residence in certain convolutions, called organs. In a similar way, assuming a difference in the developement of the convolutions and sulci, it may to some extent be explicable that a large headed man may

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