MEDICAL EXAMINATION OF RECRUITS

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3140, 19 July 1917, Page 5

MEDICAL EXAMINATION OF RECRUITS

(To the Editor.) - Sir,—After nearly three years spoilt in getting and training soldiers in New Zealand peoplo aro wanting to know why recruits are examined by medical men before they como into camp. Kesults show that fully ten .per cent, of tho men brought into camp are put out again on account of various causes of physical unfitness. .Some of these men are in camp for' a few weeks' only, many for some months. Still,'however, tho large, steady stream of unfits come into the camps each month, and equally the stream of unfits continues to be sent out. Many businesses are handicapped, dislocated, oven sold on aooount of men coming into tho camps who aTe not wanted and later on sent put again. Every industry is Buffering through the absenco of necessary and often valuable men. The immediate monetary cost, or rather loss, to the Government is tremendous; the national loss is worse. After these men aro given 'leave without pay," some of them become a charge upon the State, if we are to rely on the daily papers. Practically none of these men are fit for fighting purposes, and in most cases their disability is. pretty obvious. Medical men generally are not fools, and I respect the profession I have known all my life an d among whom I have many friends.' Tho responsible authorities, however, don't seem to respect the medical profession, or at any Tate.they' don't seem to know the value of. a full and proper medical report, so they don't get them for. recruits. The medical examination through which recruits are put in New Zealand is about the most perfunctory and valueless one 'that could be devised. Men suffer from various dangerous diseases, but the present, examination cannot discover them. Ono oommon test for detecting numerous diseases and weaknesses is tho analysis of urine. Recruits, however, are not supposed to require it. No doctor knows why. Insurance offices each spend many thousands of pounds yearly before they admit their recruits. Even for fairly small insurances they require exhaustive reports. Over a century of experience has taught themi that full medical examinations and explicit reports are very valuable. Military duties tcquiro a much better physical standard than insurance does. Strength of bono and muscle and weight of body and an approach to physical perfection aro essential for fighting purposes, although their absence frequently in no way affects longevity, what Hie life insnrance office looks to. As a case in point, flat feet don't shorten life, but they make a man useless as a soldier. Yet we have all met plenty of flat-footed men sent into camp aiid later sent out again. .Sometimes the "flat feets" are put iuto home service positions, when many'of them could bo doing far better and greater service in civilian life in -work they have been trained to. Numerous Army contractors profit Largely on account of our national stream of military unfits, but I hardly think that is the object of sending men into camp. Perhaps you, sir, can give some explanation of the apparently incomprehensible—l am, etc., July 15, 1917. In England and Wales 300,000 acres of grass land have been broken np to produce corn in tho present season. This is' good, but the programme of the Food Production Department for 1918 is much more ambitious. Sir Arthur Lee's aim is €o have 3,000,000 acres of. grass land under the plough by next seed time. By the end of the year there should be as great an acreage under corn as in the .days before the great agricultural depression which set in between 30 and 40 years ago. Mr. T. W. Eussoll, vicepresident of the Agricultural Department in Ireland, says that during the lr.st few months ho, had induced the Irish farmers to grow an- additional 750,000 acres or rwtatoes aud oats. At the Colchester section of tho Essex Appeal Tribunal, throe Dionths' exemp-tion-was allowed to a smith employed by a woman blacksmith at Witham. She, lias three brothers in the Army, and is hersolf working as a blacksmith to keep their business going. At night she works on muriifcioMj