THE SERVICE TEST

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2719, 14 March 1916, Page 6

THE SERVICE TEST

PASSING RECRUITS STATEMENT BY GENERAL DERSON.Lately complaints have been made with reference.to the non-enlistment of men suffering from minor ailments, especially varicocele, varicoso veins, and! flat foot. The complaints have been accompanied by statements that (especially with regard to varicocele and varicoso veins) the i>ractico is England is to pass men much more freely into the service. It has been, suggested that would-be recruits suffering from minor complaints should bo enlisted and then treated for these complaints at the State expense, and thus rendered fit for' military service. Yostoiday SurgeonGeneral Hcnd'orson (Director-Geuaral of Military Services) mentioned the matter to a Dominion representative, and said that he bad drawn up tlio following report on the subject:— "In New Zoaland the standard for recruits is exactly the same as those in England for men of similar height and age, and the instructions for the medical examination of recruits arc_ a reprint of those issued by the War Office. In connection with, the necessity of restricted adherence to tho standards of physical health laid down in tho above instructions, tho opinion of Major Walter Summons, M.8., D.P.H., First Australian Hospital, Cairo, as expressed in last month's 'Australian Military Journal,' may bo quoted:— " 'Tho first essential of an efficient army corps is rigid examination and reexamination of recruits before and after enlistment, and any medical man who has liad a largo number of physically incapable soldiers under his care in Egypt must have had this truth brought home to liiin. It is most unfortunate that soldiers have been enlisted, equipped, trained, and transported to the seat of war only for it to bo discovered* that there is some physical defect obvious from the first which prevents a man from 'doing his country's work. Amongst the most striking of these blomishos are hernia, varicocele, flat foot, ebb.' "Major Summons goes tn to say 'a body of men enlisted as mounteds may be turned into foot soldiers, as occurred ab the Dardanelles. Many filled with enthusiasm thought they could do marching and "went <.ff to the Dardanelles, but, alas! found they wcro unablo to do even the small amount oi foot work <uul carrying required of them there. Amongst tho causes preventing them woro flat foot, varicocele, and varicoso veins.' To quote another offieor, -Major Henry AVait, R.A.M.C.. writing in the 'Practitioners' Journal for January, 1916, states that amongst '2374 men who had all been passed within three to six months previously as lit in England, 25 per cent, were found medically unlit. Of these, 48 wero men suffering from varicocele, 33 from varicose veins and 93 from flat foot. Captain S. C. Beggs, R.A.M.C., in hiß book on the selection of tho :c----emit, states that the rejections for recruits from varicocele amounted in 1909 to 15.67 per ihousand inspected, us contrasted with 13.25 per thousand during the period 1899 to 1908. "With reference to varicocele, recruiting instructions permit slight ca6es to be passed. Tho definition of sovero cases which arc not to be passed is clearly laid down, and medical officers who road these instructions carefully I should liave no difficulty in deciding as ] to the character of the particular vari; coccie. An athlete with a severe varicocele might be able to play a good gamo of football lasting at most 80 minutes three times a week, or a shepherd with Hat feet might be able to climb hills taking liis own time. Neither would be Ukely to stand the strain of the marching and sentry-go day after lay and week aftct week which activo .icrvice entails. So far as regards recruiting in this country, medical officers as a rule curry out tlie recruiting instructions very well, and invariably do not hesitate to pass slight cases of varicocele, about which there has boon so many complaints in the Press lately. "As regards to recruiting men prior to. operations for minor defects, e.g., varicocele, varicose veins, hammer-toe, etc., these are Hot always completely successful in their results, and even if successful, as they usually are, may not be immediately so. Tho consequence is that a long time may , ekpse before tho fiatieut becomes stron&

enough to undergo the strain of active service. It would not be fair to saddla the country with the expense of the surgical treatment- and the full military pay of men who, after a long residence in hospital, may after all never be able to serve. I can quote an instance of a soldier who was operated oil for varicose veins by a skilful surgical specialist, who was' four mouths in hospital as the result, and afterwards had to 'bo invalided. The passing into the seivice of men wlio are not. thoroughly medically fit has in the past caused staffs to have become disorganised, ranks to have been depleted, hospitals to have been occupied for unnecessary work, excessive permanent invaliding, and the country in consequence to have been put to great and unnecessary expense"