A Manual of Instructions for Enlisting and Discharging Soldiers. With Special Reference to the Medical Examination of Recruits and the Detection of Disqualifying and Feigned Diseases
Men could be disqualified for military service for imbecility or insanity, conviction for a felony, and obstinate malingering. Physical infirmities included "feebleness of constitution," syphilis, scrofula, intemperance, masturbation ("there are numerous instances of men reduced to a most pitiable state of physical weakness and mental imbecility by this vice"), cancer, extreme youth and old age. Readers may be surprised to learn that German immigrants were more prone to malingering that born Americans or Irish (p. 94) and that the "typical malingerer has dark brown or hazel eyes, dark hair, and dark complexion; his face is stealthy, dogged, lowering; his eyes suspicious, furtive, restless; and his manner habitually constrained and exhibiting violent attempts at composure" (96). Roberts Bartholow (1831 1904) was an American physician and a professor at several American medical colleges. During the Civil War, Bartholow was sent to Fort Union in New Mexico, and a series of other Union military posts in the West from 1861 to 1864. During this time, he worked as assistant surgeon and headed several military hospitals. He also published several papers including this manual which was adopted at military recruiting stations to identify disqualifying diseases in recruits. Signature at front for R. J Jennings.
