Library Collections: Document: Full Text

By examining in detail the elaborate report of Hon. Theodore S. Fay, our minister at Berlin, together with Mr. Perkins's summary, and the tabulated scale of French pensions, with its accompanying summary, from the same gentleman, (14) we shall be better able to understand the comparative merits of the systems of both countries, and to perceive that so far as Prussia is concerned, there is nothing in her pension legislation which we can with safety imitate.

INSTRUCTIONS FOE MILITARY SURGEONS IN RELATION TO THE DISABILITY OF SOLDIERS IN THE FIELD, OR DISCHARGED, WHO ARE ENTITLED TO A PENSION. (15)

35. -- On the determination of effectiveness and non-effectiveness in soldiers.

Soldiers in service who become unfit for active duty, in consequence of wounds or bodily infirmities, are divided into two classes, viz:

a. Such as are entitled to pensions.

b. Such as are not entitled to pensions.

In judging of those not entitled to a pension, it must be considered whether the wound or infirmity disabling them, is permanent or transitory, in which latter case they are to be considered as only temporarily unfit. In case of permanent disability, however, the man may be unfit only for field service, or at the same time for garrison duty, i. e., for any service. All persons who are exempt in consequence of disability, without having served at all, are obliged to report to the recruiting commissioner of their place of residence for final decision, and must be pronounced by the examining military surgeons as being only temporarily unfit.

Invalids entitled to a pension are distributed into two classes, viz:

a. Half-invalids, unfit for field service, but fit for garrison duty.

b. Invalids unfit for any service.

36. -- Medical examination of invalids.

The medical examination of soldiers, in active service, who, after a time, either report themselves invalid or are considered as such by the proper authorities, must be made according to the general rules of 35. But not all the infirmities which exempt from the service are to be looked upon as reasons for ineffectiveness in a man already in the service. There is an important difference between those two points, and the surgeon cannot be too careful in pronouncing a soldier invalid, since the army thereby suffers a loss in discharging a disciplined man which cannot be easily repaired by substituting a raw recruit in his stead, and besides, the discharged man acquires a claim to a pension. Soldiers afflicted with simple inguinal or femoral hernia must, therefore, not be pronounced totally unfit, if the hernia can be supported by a truss and occasions no trouble; nor must men who have contracted, while in the service, such infirmities as would exempt a person from the draft, be considered as totally unfit under any circumstances. Hence the surgeon must distinguish whether, and to what degree, the soldier is unfit for service in consequence of his infirmity, and in the first case, whether he is only unfit for field service (half-invalid) or even for the easier garrison duty (totally or fully invalid), neither decision to be given but after a careful examination, or treatment of internal diseases, sufficient to demonstrate the invalidity beyond doubt.

37. -- Of diseases of invalidity, and of diseases and infirmities causing half-invalidity.

The surgeon will need to employ all his skill in this particular form of investigation, since the same cause, manifesting itself in different degrees, may occasion either full, or half-invalidity.

BODILY INFIRMITIES CONSTITUTING HALF-INVALIDITY.

1. Loss of substance of the bones of the skull in consequence of wounds, providing the wearing of the head-dress occasions no distress.

2. Amblyopia of a slight degree, consequent upon nervous affections, opacities of the cornea (maculae) or other organic changes.

3. Amaurosis of left eye, the right being perfectly healthy.

4. Progressing deafness.

5. Loss of front teeth.

6. Advanced bronchocele.

7. The highest degree of bronchocele, the gland being much enlarged, without injury to respiration.

8. Varicocele which is troublesome, when no suspensory bandage is worn.

9. Small hydrocele, the patient refusing to submit to an operation, or the latter being impossible for other reasons.

10. Slight swelling, or induration of testis.

11. Chronic affections of the lungs, weakness and irritation in consequence of acute diseases, chronic catarrh of lungs or trachea, chronic hoarseness.

12. Slight asthma.

13. Chronic diseases of the bowels, with habitual indigestion and cramps.

14. Piles, painful swellings around the anus, haemorrhoids of the bladder.

15. Chronic muscular rheumatism.

16. Weakness of joints after wounds and luxations.

17. Weakness of limbs after fractures, with recurrent pains upon changes of weather.

18. Chronic varices, without pain.

19. Cicatrices of ulcers of the feet when they break easily in walking. Also, shortening of a leg after fracture, which can be remedied by mechanical means.