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Report To The U.S. Sanitary Commission. On A System For The Economical Relief Of Disabled Soldiers, And On Certain Proposed Amendments To Our Present Pension Laws

Creator: John Ordronauz (author)
Date: 1864
Publisher: Sanford, Harroun & Co., New York
Source: Available at selected libraries

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567  

14. -- Total loss of one eye, or loss of its sight resulting from wounds. Inveterate or chronic ophthalmia of both eyes, with ulceration of lids, opacities of the cornea, staphyloma of this membrane, the sclerotic, or the iris.

568  

15. -- Diseases of the lachrymal passages.

569  

16. -- Loss of the external pavilion of the ear, or obliteration of one of the auditory ducts, perforation of the tympanum, with complete deafness of one ear.

570  

17. -- Deafness of both ears, with rupture of their tympana, or caries of the small bones. Wounds of the head, followed by lesion and loss of substance of the bones of the skull.

571  

18. -- Total loss of the nose, or its accidental deformity to such a degree as to hinder respiration or pronunciation.

572  

19. -- Disease of the maxillary sinus.

573  

20. -- Fistulas opening into any portion of the nasal duct, incurable, with loss of voice, and wasting.

574  

21. -- Laryngeal or pulmonary phthisis. Haemoptysis.

575  

22. -- Organic and chronic cardiac lesions, hypertrophy, or aneurism resulting from the vicissitudes of military service.

576  

23. -- Caries of the ribs or sternum.

577  

24. -- Organic lesions of the stomach.

578  

25, -- Chronic hypertrophy of liver, resulting from climatic influences, excessive fatigue, exposure, etc.

579  

26. -- Chronic hypertrophy of spleen, with digestive trouble and tendency to marasmus.

580  

27. -- Symptomatic dropsy, resulting from organic disease of the abdominal viscera, or hydrothorax.

581  

28. -- Chronic hemorrhoidal haemorrhage, arising from fatigues, with habitual indisposition, rebellious to all treatment.

582  

29. -- Incurable obliteration of rectum, with obstruction to defecation, resulting from wounds near the margin of the anus.

583  

30. -- Artificial anus, resulting from wounds.

584  

31. -- -Ventral hernia, resulting from wounds.

585  

32. -- Crural or inguinal hernia, when irreducible -- double hernias which cannot be reduced without manifest danger, owing to their volume and adhesions.

586  

33. -- Large and multiple varices of the lower limbs, and scrotum, resulting from fatigues, especially when they have repeatedly burst.

587  

34. -- Calculus, resulting from the 'introduction of a foreign body into the bladder.

588  

35. -- Incontinence, or retention of urine, resulting from physical injuries to the bladder or urethra, received in the service.

589  

36. -- Frequent and habitual hematuria, resulting from the fatigues of war.

590  

37. -- Loss of the penis from wounds. Loss of the two testicles. Total loss of the genitals from wounds.

591  

38. -- Old hydrocele, rebellious to treatment, especially in the aged.

592  

39. -- Ilydrosarcocele, resulting from wounds. 40. -- Urinary fistulas, resulting from wounds.

593  

41. -- Inveterate herpetic affections, which arc rebellious to treatment.

594  

42. -- Chronic arthritic and rheumatic affections, with swelling of joints and impairment of muscular activity, resulting from exposures in the service.

595  

43. -- Deformity of the vertebral column, with impairment of the motions of the trunk, arising from the incomplete luxation of one of the cervical or lumbar vertebrae.

596  

44. -- Irreducible luxation of the shoulder, or complete anchylosis of the scapulo-humeral articulation.

597  

45. -- Irreducible luxation, or complete anchylosis of the humero-cubital articulation, with extensive or permanent flexion of the fore-arm. Irreducible luxation, or anchylosis of the carpus.

598  

46. -- Incurable and complete luxation of the thigh, or anchylosis of the coxo-femoral articulation.

599  

47. -- Luxation of the knee, with extension or flexion of the leg.

600  

48. -- Consecutive or spontaneous luxation of the femur.

601  

49. -- Anchylosis (partial or complete) of the foot, with or without deformity.

602  

50. -- Compound fractures of either the lower or the upper limbs, entailing permanent deformity.

603  

51. -- False articulation in any portion of the fractured limbs.

604  

52. -- Loss of either two fingers or toes, with impeded motion of the hand or foot.

605  

53. -- Loss of the thumb, with or without loss of the first phalanx.

606  

54. -- Permanent flexion or extension of several fingers, or of all.

607  

55. -- Total loss of toes from congelation, or crushing, or any cause arising during military service.

608  

56. -- Retraction of limbs, resulting from adherent and deepseated cicatrices, when incurable.

609  

57. -- Incomplete atrophy of a limb (arm) from wounds. Incomplete atrophy of a limb (leg) from wounds.

610  

58. -- Loss of substance following lacerated wound, and not only altering the form, but destroying the organization of parts.

611  

59. -- Deep-seated caries, produced and maintained by the presence of a projectile or foreign body driven by it into the parts.

612  

60. -- Cold abscesses, caused by disease of the bones.

613  

61. -- Aneurisms affecting the principal arteries in either the upper or lower limbs.

614  

PRUSSIA.

615  

Prussia is, perhaps, the most completely military of all the continental nations, and in that sense furnishes a good parallel for comparison with France. It is safe to assert that every able-bodied man has, at some period of his life, been in the active service of the State, while all beyond the age for field service are still inscribed upon the rolls of the Landwehr, and included within some of its classes, up to sixty years. Personal service to the State being thus exacted from every citizen, whatever his rank or degree in society, there follows a prestige to the military class which enables it to claim large gratuities from the pension fund. And inasmuch as officers' salaries are extremely small, proportionally to those of contiguous countries, some return seems to have been made to them, in the larger pensions granted pro rata, as compared with other armies, and the privates of their own. How far caste-privilege has infected the legislation of this subject, it is impossible to say. There is negative evidence that it has weighed in the allotment of pensions, since, on no other supposition, can we account for the great disparity in their amount when compared with France, or the most striking minimum of support accorded to soldiers in distinction from officers. Frederick the Great's famous saying, that "We must take care of our old friends, the old soldiers," does not appear to have been literally followed by his successors. The pittance given the crippled or blind Prussian soldier, amounting in the maximum to eighty-four thalers, or about sixty dollars and forty-eight cents per annum, is not sufficient to support him out of an asylum, and he becomes almost, if not quite, a pauper, being driven to ask assistance from the parish in which he resides. That this is unjust to the soldier admits of no doubt; and the question that naturally arises, is that of the cause which has produced this neglect of his interests. If it be not the result of caste-prerogative favoring the officer, to what else can it be due? By referring to the pension funds of France and Prussia, we find that while in the former officers constitute one-fifth of the whole number of pensioners, they receive only 15.33 of the fund, while in the latter country, where they constitute but one-sixth of the whole number, they receive 25.30 of the fund. Here are two great military powers, side by side, acknowledging their gratitude for personal services rendered by citizens, the one by an extreme minimum of gratuity to soldiers, and a large benefice to officers, or basing it upon rank alone, the other making a more nearly equal distribution of its rewards according to rank and merit combined.

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