C. MOBILIZATION OF THE ARMY.

The conditions presented by the Army for 1917 are so completely novel that the routine report of former years becomes quite inadequate for this. From a strength of 217,272 in January, 1917, the Army increased to 1,538,203 in December, 1917. This increase occurred, moreover, not uniformly, but, on the contrary, was largely confined to the last six months of the year, during five of which the monthly increments exceeded the size of the Regular Army in the preceding December (Chart 9). Indeed, in the single month of September the increment to the Army was about four times the strength of the Regular Army in December, 1916. The mobilization during September of 462,000 men and the preparations for that mobilization were a severe strain on all branches of the War Department, and it was well nigh inevitable that they should have affected unfavorably the record that the Medical Department made in the nine months following July 1, 1917.

The Army of January, 1917, included about 115,000 officers and men of the Regular Army who were continued from December, 1916. During the first six months the strength of the Regular Army rose to 245,000, indicating that there had been a net gain by enlistment of about 130,000 recruits, so that on June 30 about half of the Regular Army consisted of men who had recently left civil life. On June 30, 1917, there were also about 111,000 men and officers in the National Guard (A. G. Rept. 1917, p. 45). These, more or less commingled with the National Army, were located in southern camps. The names of these camps with maximum strength and months thereof are:

1 This camp was occupied by these troops for a part only of the last four months of the year.

The details of weekly changes in the strength of these camps are given in Charts 10-39.

46

Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov. Dec.

CHART NO. 7.

Enlisted men, American troops. The highest column gives the number of white troops, the black column of colored troops.

In September, 1917, the entrainment of the first call for the first draft was made. This comprised 5 per cent of the 687,000 men of the first draft, or about 34,000 white men. The second call was for about 275,000 white men. The third call was for about 126,800 men. Of these about 9,300 men were colored, sent to Camps Pike, Gordon, and Jackson. The fourth call of October 13, comprised

about 47,000 men, of whom 29,000 were colored. Subsequent calls in November and December yielded about 36,000 additional men. The details of these distributions to the various camps are given in Charts 10-25.

The physical examination at local draft boards lay entirely under the jurisdiction of the Provost Marshal General who has already published an account of its method and results. (Rept. P. M. G.

to the Sec. of War, 1918.) But since the Medical Department of the Army had to deal with those who were accepted by the local and medical advisory boards as physically fit, it is desirable here to consider the Provost Marshal General's conclusions:

First, it appeared that of 2,510,706 examined physically by the local boards 29.1 per cent were rejected as physically unfit and 70.8 per cent were accepted as fit. In general, States between the Mississippi River and the Sierra Nevada Mountains had a low rate of rejections, 14 to 26 per cent (except Nevada, which had 30 per cent). The States of the Northeast had relatively high rates of rejection varying from 47 per cent for Pennsylvania to 30 per cent for New York. The high rejection may be due to careful selection and high ideals on the part of the examiners; in part it may be due to a physical inferiority of the men examined. The Provost Marshal General remarks (p. 46), "doubtless the local boards varied extremely in the strictness of their examinations."

The machinery of selecting the first contingent of the National Army was assembled with swiftness. The selective service act was passed on May 18, and "Regulations governing physical examinations," were issued July 2 (Form No. 11, P. M. G. O.). Beginning about July 20, local boards made examinations under these regulations. The regulations were brief (about four pages) and were replaced in August by "Instructions for the Physical Examination of Drafted Men at National Army Cantonments," issued by the Surgeon General and on December 15, by "Selective Service Regulations, ncluding "Directions for physical examination," about seven pages n extent. Under the system which prevailed during the greater part of the time of selecting the National Army, covered by this eport, "there was no appeal from local board ruling on physical qualification." The later regulations provided for sending doubtul cases to a medical advisory board. The accepted men were rdered to entrain on certain days to go to the prescribed camps. On each train they were accompanied by one of their number in harge of the party. Arriving at camp the physical examination ook place, usually the next day, sometimes on the same day, someimes after several days' delay. The physical examination took place n some available building, usually in a barrack or infirmary.

The problem of examining physically from 1,000 to 3,000 men in ne day was a novel one and was met in various ways at different amps by the division surgeon. He usually appointed a chief aedical examiner under whose direction stations were provided for he different examiners and barriers were created and orderlies osted to secure the regular movement of the recruits.

Different types of physical examination were developed at differnt camps. In one type there were routine examiners for the main xamination line and for doubtful cases a board of specialists in nother part of the building. In another type the specialists were ationed alongside of the routine examiners and observed doubtful ises there.

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