The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1885-08-27
Date at Which a Pension Shall Beqia.
PENSION TALK.
Total NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. Needed-Examining
Boards-Aixed BOards-GiSe Us Party Boards
Responsibility.

Boartis-Mixed BOards-Give Us Party Boards
Responsibility.
To THE EDITOR: The inquiry of the average
impecunious pensioner is, why a man who is
totally" disabled should only be allowed s.
per month. That amount will not go very far
towards supporting man, and is a miserly
pittauce toward the feeding and clothing of a
family. Was s. month the rate of wages for
the Revolutionary soldier? aud was that
amount considered a good, substantial figure,
i'll Colonial times, for labOrer, soldier, and
pensioner? In the opinion of the writer, total
disability should be rated at highest wages per
month paid to privates during our late war.
We hope the friends of the soldier in Congress
will interest themselves next Winter to make
pensi on rating in accordance with sound de-
auctions and exact and liberal justice. There
is no good, valid reason, physiological, philo-
sophical, or otherwise, why total disability
should rate so low, or, for that matter, the
whoe labyrinth of rating should be so incom-
prehensible to the average man of ordinary in
telligence.
But the atmosphere of profound and occult
medical and surgical erudition that environs
some of the Examining Boards, at least in the
West, is an enigma beyond the domain of pos
sible solution. "A rejection of over 80 per cent.
of applications for increased" says a Washing
ton paper. Men who are drawing a scale all
the way from one, up through pitiable grada-
tions, to IS per month gradatious, cringingly
beg and pray for some slight increase to their
scanty allowance since their last examination,
and are refused. Pensioners disabilities, by
the Judgment of those SOlons, are not supposed
to be augmented with the lapse of time; and in
the soldiers case, different from the usual pro-
cess of mortality. when they die they are lust
snuffed out" like a candle. But We are Civ
ing these military ciphers now more than they
are allowed by the laws of rating" they may
hon
the more shame on those legislators who have
persistently opposed and defeated nearly every
measure offered in Congress by the friends of
the soldier TO reasonably reward the defend
ers and saviors of the Republic
Paranthetically, the kirksyille (No.) Board
is to some extent, good example to the fore
going. as well as the new regime of mixed
Boards This is mixed Board, one Democrat
and two Republicans perhaps by this
time two Democrats and one Republican. The
Democrat referred to is about retired from prac-
tice-s wealthy, and the Board meets in his
elegant suit of rooms. These courteous gentle
men greet the boys with 'smile that is bland"
They can well afford to be civil and even unc-
tious, when there are from 10 to Is, and some
times more claimants examined each week
and when the learned doctors get 81 each for
every case examined. This is much better than
low rate pension. Twenty to thirty dollars
every seven days is productive of more COM
Portable tumor than any pathological lump in
the side And they do not handle man . with
gloves on so to speak. That would be too
humane and unprofessional. They would have
been excellent executors of the DEGREES of the
Court of the Inguisition in the palmy and
triumphant days of Ferdinand and Isabel.
They PROFOUND no interrogatories. The ideal
practitioner ut the bedside of a patient would
estimate the history of the case with all the
symptoms. both objective and subjective, and
predicate his diagnosis from all the facts, and
not OH the mere physical condition ELECTED
from brief and unmerciful castigation. lie
would trace the disease to its origin, and by a
process Of careful inquiry and rigid, though
considerable, investigation evoke a concise
grouping of every deviation from healthy
standard since the inception of the ailment. A
diseased condition is indicated by the symptoms
or signs, and groups of such. constant under
similar circumstances or conditions, are given
a name as a matter OF scientific or professional
conyenience-NOSoiogy DunglisOn's Medical
Dictionary. under the word Symptom" says
:" 1t is by the aggregate and succession of symp-
toms that disease is detected" The only way
to get a complete history of a case. in connec-
ton with all other symptoms, is direct from
the patient himself When he is almost COM
pletely ignored in an examination, the result can
only be partial and often uniayorable. Throw
these dead men overheard Said Surgeon,
pointing out number of PROSTATE and bloody
forms on board of ship after sanguinsry naval
engagement. One wounded man, almost MORT
bund, but revived by the movement, objected
to the rough handling, and especially to being
thrown into the sea- Il AM not dead let ME
alone" said he. But you are dead" replied
the sailors; 1.-THE doctor said SO, and he knows.
So over you go," One more word in regard to
the honorable Board in question, over whose
broad shoulders we herein formulate whole
some lesson, suggestive, practical and neces-