The soldier's heart and the effort syndrome / by Thomas Lewis.

  • Lewis, Thomas, Sir, 1881-1945.
Date:
[1918]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The soldier's heart and the effort syndrome / by Thomas Lewis. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    111/164 (page 95)
    Examples of after-histories of soldiers discharged to duty. The success or want of success of such a system as has been described can be gauged only by actual experience, and this I am in a position to relate. It is now two years since the system was introduced and during this period over 5,000 patients have passed through our hands, the average stay of the patients in hospital having varied between six and ten weeks. After-histories of the earliest group.—Between the months of May and November, 1916, some 558 cases who had successfully passed the preliminary examination, intended to eliminate the obviously diseased, were discharged from hospital. The whole of this group during its stay was submitted to graded exercises and marches, and the military prognosis was based chiefly upon the reactions to these exercises. Of these 558 men, 286, or approximately 50 per cent., were judged to be unfit for any category of duty then available. The remaining 272 men were recommended for one of the several duty categories. The actual recommenda¬ tions are given in the left-hand column of the accompanying table, as they apply to 239 of the 272 men.* These are all the men of the group in whom a satisfactory comparison between the recommendations and after-histories can be instituted. Inquiries were made in regard to all the 272 men, and we received information in respect of all but 9 of them. An average period of 11-2 months elapsed between the discharge to duties and the receipt of the replies. The table may be summed up. Of the 239 men 119 were recommended as fit for duty (72) or as likely to prove fit within three months (47) ; 109 men had proceeded on full duty overseas (79) or were in provisional units (30) ; 120 men were recommended for light or sedentary * Thirty-three men have been omitted ; in 9 of these I am unable to give the after-history ; 1 man has since been discharged as time-expired ; 7 has since deserted. The remaining 22 men have been transferred to Reserve asses—i.e., as fit for service but deemed of greater value in civil life, c