Remarks on the examination of recruits : intended for the use of young medical officers on entering the army / by H.H. Massy.

  • Massy, H. H.
Date:
1854
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Remarks on the examination of recruits : intended for the use of young medical officers on entering the army / by H.H. Massy. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    no medical officer would be justified in assuming he ever would be. The determination of this point must comprise not only what he may be called upon to do immediately after enlistment, but what at any period of his service a soldier's eventful life may subject him to. At the enlistment of lads they may not then from their age be capable of sustaining the fatigues of duty on active service, but if care is in- stituted in their selection, if a healthy and vigorous frame is considered essential, there is an assurance that a year or two will provide for the deficiency. Not so in the other case, if not thoroughly physi- cally qualified at the period of enlistment, he more than likely never will be; in such a man immediate fitness ought not to be deemed enough, he should be fully equal to every contingency. Independent of the baneful effects of climate, the exposure to morbific poisons, and numerous other exciting sources of disease on foreign service, an infantry soldier, on active service, is at all times liable to the exhausting and debilitating influence of hardships, consequent upon want of rest and long marches, frequently carrying very considerable weight. Attention is particularly directed to these points in the instructions, as soldiers are liable to serve in every variety of climate, to be exposed to frequent vicissitudes of temperature and weather, to undergo much fatigue and danger, and often to sustain considerable privations, no recruit who is not vigorous ought to be approved, A reference to
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