THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES THURSDAY, DECEMBER 29, 1949. ARMY MEDICAL TESTS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27275, 29 December 1949, Page 4

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES THURSDAY, DECEMBER 29, 1949. ARMY MEDICAL TESTS

It is desirable that the comments on army medical tests which were made by Dr T. D. B. Stout in a paper read to medical officers at Burnham Military Camp should receive wider publicity, for the matter is one of considerable public interest. In a short time the compulsory military training scheme will come into operation in this country and thousands of young men will be facing medical examinations. Before that work is commenced, the experience of the past should b.e weighed so that errors can be corrected and recent advancements of knowledge should be studied in order that improvements can be made, for the system will have a profound influence on the future of those who are selected or rejected under it. Early this year it was announced that the New Zealand Army had decided to adopt what is known as the “ Pulheems ” method of medical testing of recruits. The name is derived from the initial letters of the key points of the examination —physique, upper and lower extremities, hearing, eye (right), eye (left), mental capacity and stability. This system was developed overseas during the war and Dr Stout confirmed the opinion of other experts when he said that little fault could be found with the existing code of recommendations for grading men. He added, however, that it was difficult to lay down rigid rules. This difficulty is particularly acute when the mental capacity and emotional stability of the recruits are to be tested.

It was only during the war that the importance of psychiatry was recognised by the army, which formerly paid little heed to the liabilities of putting square pegs into square holes. Failure to take individual mental characteristic into account created many “ unsatisfactory” soldiers and resulted in no little actual mental illness. The importance of the change is indicated by the fact that in the 1914-18 war much was heard of the malingerer but, in an interview shortly after his arrival in Dunedin some three years ago. Dr Harold Palmer, who had extensive experience in the British Army, remarked that, in his experience, deliberate malingering was nonexistent. With men actually serving in the army the task of the psychiatrist is facilitated by the fact that there is available from his records and from his officers evidence concerning his behaviour and temperament. With recruits just being called up, as Dr Stout pointed out, there is no such information available and he suggests that it would be better if an examination could be made at a later stage of the training scheme. “ No medical board could on a short examination sort out these men,” said Dr Stout, referring to undesirable types, “ and I think we should say so, and arrange for their elimination later on.” Some assistance could be obtained in testing mental capacity and. stability from a questionnaire dealing with the background ,of the recruit, but the interpretation of even such information as this is a matter for the trained investigator and the result would be of limited use as' a guide. As corps psychiatrists were appointed in the British Army during the war, so it would appear to be necessary to have the services of psychiatrists for the New Zealand defence services, and at present there are very few qualified psychiatrists in this country. The Dunedin Public Hospital is perhaps the only such institution in New Zealand which has a resident psychiatrist on its staff. It is a notable advance that mental fitness should be considered as well as physical fitness, but it is essential that the examinations should be in the hands of fully-qualified men. If this is not insisted upon, the simple brutality of the old methods might still be preferable.