THAT MEDICAL EXAMINATION.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1247, 2 October 1911, Page 5

THAT MEDICAL EXAMINATION.

Sir,-The procedure and results of tho medical examination for universal compulsory service have been quite an enigma to me, although I have liad many tnou sands ot troops through my hands. I had been informed that instructions had been issued to make tho examination easy, and tho standard a low one, but the lightning rapidity of tho examinations amazed A read ot 200 to 300 young men put through" in an evening, presumably of two hours. Again, wo .read of them being examined at tho rate of three or four per minute. This procedure can scarcoly bo dignified by the term examination—it can merely bo called a "hastv inspection." Tho figures arrived at for chest measurements, etc., lbust bo approximato only, and can not bo at all reliable. jhen when we read that the meii were only stripped to the waist, and examined with boots, socks, and trousers on, amazement gives place to amusement, for even as a hasty inspection tho procedure seems on the face of it quito ridiculous for all practical purposes. As for tho results, wo read on ono hand that tho boards havo only rejected five per cent.; on' the other, it is cabled to us from tho Medical Congress that from -10 to 45 per cent of tile youth of Australasia are unfit for 'service. These figures aro puzzling, and require a deal of reconciliation. Now wo aro informed that too many have passed tho easy ordeal, and that for purposes of economy—not physical fitness, mark you—tho number of tho elite aro to bo reduced on a 33 per cent, basis, and tho reduction worked on a question of SDund teeth! Ohviouslv, it cannot bo on a question of'sound legs, becauso they have -not yet been examined. Contrast this with the following ■ description abridged from "My Life in tho Army," bjj If. • Blatchford:— , '"Come on,-kid, go into the room and strip, and wait for orders.' I went into the room, and saw to my astonishment some forty to lift}- young men, as naked as mermaids, leaning against tho walls, etc. I had just got undressed, when! 'Fall in another forty of you.' We fell in, and -were inarched across-tlio corridor, passing another contingent'in a like state of innocence, coming out of the doctor's room. Every now aud then a doctor would stop, ask a curt question or. two, and then say: 'Fall out.'' That meant some poor fellow was rejected. Of our forly perhaps six were refused. Two of theso were fine young men, enlisted for tho Lancers. One of them asked the doctor if lie would mind saying why they wcro, rejected Tho doctor looked at him sharply. 'Don't you know?' ho asked. 'No, sir.'' 'Il'm!" The doctor shrugged bis shoulders. *Hernin,' said he. 'You would be dead in a month,', and he walked on.' As our examinations did not extend below tho waist, unless specially requested, there cannot have been any examination for hernia or ruptilre, or for sound feet, etc., etc., which ore much moro important than sound teeth. Time was, however, taken up in recording bluo eyes and grey eyes; fair hair or brown liair—but "quantum sutf!"—l am, etc., HAURY A. DE LAUTOUR, Late Lieut.-Col. N.Z.M. Corps.