THE UNIFORM OF THE WEST POINT CADET. 
By CAPTAIN JAMES E. PILCHER, 
Assistant Surgeon, United States Army. 
WEST POINT is the home of tradition and military con- 
servatism. That such is the fact is a happy circum- 
stance, for in this age of rampant Philistinism a locality 
where festina lente is the rule of progress cannot but be of advan- 
tage not only in preserving the traditions of the past, but in 
affording an obstacle to an injuriously vacillating policy in mili- 
tary affairs. In no respect is this conservatism more apparent 
than in the uniform of the Corps of Cadets. While the uniforms 
of the Army at large have undergone almost innumerable modifi- 
cations since its organization, that of the cadet of to-day remains 
practically the same as that of his predecessor of half a century 
ago. In making any investigations, then, looking to a possible 
change of any kind in the character of these garments, the in- 
quirer is confronted by a barrier of prejudice so nearly insur- 
mountable as to be almost appalling. But the opinions which 
the writer has formed are based upon indications of so positive 
and practical a character that they would seem to demand con- 
sideration in spite of custom or tradition. 
The examination into the subject upon which the following 
brief discussion and conclusions are founded, was made by the 
Medical Examining Board, consisting of Major Charles R. Green- 
leaf, Captain John O. Skinner, and the writer, in June, 1888, and 
every facility was afforded them for making an inquiry of the 
most searching description. The subject was thoughtfully con- 
sidered in repeated meetings of the Board. Numbers of the offi- 
cers attached to the Academy were consulted at length, and the 
opinions of the cadets themselves were heard with close atten- 
tion. Many measurements were taken and other physical tests 
applied-indeed advantage was taken of every available means 
to form an unprejudiced opinion. 
The articles found to be particularly worthy of attention were 
the dress hat and the dress coat. 
479 480 
UNIFORM OF WEST POINT CADET. 
The Hat. - In order to properly appreciate the merits or 
demerits of a military dress hat, certain points, essential to the 
usefulness of the article, should be borne in mind. These may 
be briefly summarized as follows : 
1. It should afford adequate protection to the entire head 
from the sun or rain in summer and the snow or sleet in winter, 
from the heat in the warm season and from the cold in the cooler 
months. It should have sufficient brim to shade, not only the 
eyes, but also the back of the head. 
2. It should be well-ventilated, not coming directly in con- 
tact with the head, if possible, but having an air space between 
the hair and a rim fitting about the head ; an opening should 
be present at or near the top, to permit the exit of the air en- 
tering at the brim, thus providing ventilation by perflation, 
which seems to be the only practicable means of ventilation for 
headgear. 
3. It should be of sufficiently pliable material to allow it to 
adapt itself to heads of varying shapes. 
4. It must be light and the weight must be evenly distributed 
about the head. 
5. It must be worn with comfort and be in no respect 
productive of discomfort or illness upon the part of the wearer. 
6. For military purposes, it should be so constructed as not 
to be readily put out of shape, while it should be sufficiently 
ornate in appearance to satisfy the demand for brilliancy in mili- 
tary attire. 
The dress hat of the cadet corps is a chasseur cap made of 
stiff material and provided with an exceptionally heavy leather 
visor. Those of the cadet privates and non-commissioned officers 
are furnished with a pompon, set in a metal socket at the front 
and top of the cap, and projecting forward and upward ; the 
officers are provided with a plume and socket in the same posi- 
tion, but of greater weight. Upon the front of the cap is a 
metal cap-plate. 
The weight of the privates' hat is about ten ounces; that of 
the officers something more-but in neither case is it too great 
to be borne with comfort, if distributed uniformly about the 
head. But the ornaments together with the visor cause the 
greater portion of the weight of the hat to fall upon the forehead 
just above the eyebrows. The effect of this constant pressure is 
to markedly compress the skin, nerves and other soft tissues be- UNIFORM OF WEST POINT CADET. 
481 
tween two unyielding surfaces-the skull within and the visor 
without-causing much discomfort, and at times positive suffer- 
ing. Attention was voluntarily called to this point by members 
of the graduating class, who stated that, particularly during their 
first and second years at the Academy, they suffered from head- 
aches which they attributed to the wearing of the dress hat. 
The weight of the hat bearing most heavily upon the brow would 
have the same effect as a ligature bound about any portion of the 
body, compressing the vessels and the nerves, obstructing the 
flow of blood through the one and inducing a painful reaction in 
the other. In this way, the headaches referred to may be ac- 
counted for in the great majority of instances. 
In view of these evident disadvantages, supported by the 
various complaints, careful inquiries were made into the reasons 
for continuing the hat as an article of apparel for the cadets. 
The only reasons that could be discovered, were, (i) its [alleged] 
beauty and (2) the firm hold upon the affections of the cadets 
and graduates which long use had given it-neither of which 
would seem to be sufficient to justify its retention if defective 
from a sanitary standpoint. 
Investigations into the subject were continued with consider- 
able minuteness along this and other lines, and, not to dwell at too 
great a length upon details, the conclusion was finally reached 
that the hat was deficient in nearly all the essentials to such an 
article of head-dress, viz : 
1. While it covers that portion of the head contained within 
its cavity satisfactorily enough, the absence of brim leaves the 
sides of the head and face and the back of the head entirely 
without protection from the elements. 
2. It is not ventilated, and the confinement within it of the 
exhalations of the head, particularly in warm weather, makes it 
oppressive as well as dangerous to health. 
3. It is so rigid that it fails to adapt itself properly to heads of 
different shapes, and thus produces unequal pressure at points in 
its circumference. 
4. While it is light enough to be borne upon the head with- 
out annoyance, it is so badly balanced as to throw the greater por- 
tion of the weight forward upon the brows, and consequently- 
5. It cannot be worn with comfort, and its use is acknowledged 
to tend to the production of headaches, heat-exhaustion and 
atrophy of the hair follicles. 482 
UNIFORM OF WEST POINT CADET. 
The Coat.-The essentials in a military dress coat for the 
use of growing lads differ in some respects from those of a fully 
developed adult, but they may be briefly stated as follows, warmth 
and adequate covering being premised : 
1. It should be comfortable to the wearer. 
2. It should not bind his body at any point nor cause any dis- 
tortion of the figure or loss of elasticity or power of any portion 
of the frame. 
3. It should not compress the chest or abdomen, nor interfere 
with the functions of circulation, respiration or digestion. 
4. It should not embarrass the process of development of the 
youth. 
5. It should be so made and ornamented, and of such material 
as to adapt it for use as a military garment. 
The dress coat of the Corps of Cadets is a coatee of antiqua- 
ted pattern, modeled after the now discarded uniforms of certain 
foreign regiments of the last century. It is a tight fitting jacket 
with two flaps hanging from the rear in the manner of the even- 
ing dress coat. Its form is such that tightness is essential to neat- 
ness. And the requirement of tightness in the coat renders it 
necessary that the waist-band of the trowsers, underneath it, be 
still tighter. 
Were the coatee made loose so that the trunk could be treated 
as a cylinder, the garment would be ungainly and present an irresist- 
ible tendency to slip up so as to display the undergarments be- 
tween the trowsers and its lower margin. This can be prevented 
only by compressing the trunk into the shape of an inverted cone. 
A satisfactory fit of the garment then demands a tight fit. So 
tight a garment cannot be comfortable. That this is true in the 
case of the coatee, is evident from the fact that when studyingin 
their rooms or in negligt, the cadets customarily unbutton it. 
When eating, they give free play to the abdomen by the same 
maneuver. 
In order to test the sensations experienced while wearing the 
coatee, one of the members of the Board put on the coat of a 
cadet, the circumference of whose chest was the same as his own. 
At first, it seemed hardly possible to bring the edges of the coat 
together, but, after availing himself of the instructions of the 
owner of the garment, who practised upon him the manoeuvres 
customary among the cadets in getting into the coat, he was able 
to fasten it about him. Discomfort to the extent of actual pain UNIFORM OF WEST POINT CADET. 
483 
was experienced particularly at the level of the ninth rib, which 
was pressed inward, although the amount of compression was the 
greatest at the waist. The chest movements were greatly im- 
peded and confined, while thoracic, and in particular, abdominal 
respiration was markedly limited. And while it seemed possible 
that the wearer could become so habituated to the pressure of 
the garment after wearing it for a considerable length of time, as to 
be able to endure it without suffering, the functions of respiration 
and circulation would undoubtedly be impeded by it. 
The effect upon the conformation of the cadet of the wearing 
of the coatee is particularly noticeable when, after his four years' 
course, he appears in the uniform of an officer, and it is a familiar 
sight in our Service. Instead of presenting a figure formed 
according to the canons of art for his sex-sloping inward from 
his shoulders to his heels-he presents a form similar to that of 
a woman as distorted by the corset-a figure defensible neither 
from an artistic nor a utilitarian standpoint. The lower ribs are 
compressed and a deformity of the thorax is produced which fre- 
quently requires several years of common-sense apparel before 
the elasticity of the young man's frame can entirely correct it. 
Atrophy of the muscles of the abdomen and loins is produced, 
together with a certain amount of displacement of the abdomi- 
nal viscera. 
In order to ascertain beyond question whether the alleged 
pressure of these coats actually existed or not, and if so, towhat 
extent, girth measurements were made of fifteen members of 
the graduating class chosen at random, at the chest and waist, 
both over the coat and about the nude body. These measure- 
ments showed that there was an average compression of an inch 
and a half; in one case it was three and three-fourths inches, 
while in but a single one was there no compression. 
It has been shown by Sargent in investigating the action of 
the corset upon woman, that compression of the chest adds 
greatly to the wear and tear of the heart. While Lowenfield has 
found that it has a direct effect upon the capacity for brain work. 
The amount of work which the brain can accomplish depends 
upon the amount of nourishment which it receives from the 
blood. But the amount of nourishment in the blood is depend- 
ent upon the amount of air which can be supplied to it, and this 
may be greatly influenced by compression of the chest and 
the consequent limitation of respiratory action. Moreover, in 484 
UNIFORM OF WEST POINT CADET. 
considering the effect of this compression upon the cadet, it 
should be remembered that the coatee tightly surrounds the 
entire chest as well as the waist, so that its wearers do not even 
have an advantage equal to the tightly corseted woman, whose 
thoracic respiration is comparatively free, although her abdomi- 
nal respiration is prohibited. 
The digestive processes also are unfavorably affected by the 
compression of the waist, not only secondarily through the effect 
upon the circulation and respiration, but directly through the 
mechanical action of the ligation of the body, producing dis- 
placement, distortion and functional weakness. 
If there be a predisposition to any disorder of either the 
respiratory, circulatory or digestive apparatus, the wearing of this 
garment would inevitably increase the tendency, if it did not actu- 
ally become the exciting cause of the malady. It is worthy of note 
in this connection that one of those members of the graduating 
class, whose coatee exerted the greatest pressure, presented a 
varicocele of considerable size, the development of which could 
be attributed directly to the interference with the venous circula- 
tion afforded by his coat. 
Upon careful inquiry into the grounds upon which its adher- 
ents base their desire for the retention of the coatee, four prin- 
cipal reasons were obtained : 
1. It is vested with all the interest of tradition. 
2. It is neat and military in appearance. 
3. It gives the wearer a soldierly figure and a military deport- 
ment. 
4. It has stood the test of half a century's use, and the offi- 
cers graduated from the Academy during that time have been 
men of good physique who show no ill-health traceable to the 
use of the garment under consideration. 
The first reason is purely sentimental in character, and while 
entirely worthy of consideration, other things being equal, should 
not be allowed to stand for an instant if the garment can be 
shown to be detrimental to health. 
The second has no weight if a garment as neat and soldierly 
be substituted for it. 
The third is based upon an utterly false principle. It is not 
desirable that the officers of the Army should be recruited from 
young men who owe their soldierly figure and military deport- 
ment to their tailors. These qualities are eminently desirable, UNIFORM OF WEST POINT CADET. 
485 
and every effort should be made to obtain them ; but this should 
be accomplished by the development of defective portions of the 
body rather than by atrophy of the more active ones, such as 
is produced by encasing the frame in an unyielding harness like 
the present dress coat. A scientific system of physical culture 
should be established, beginning with the first year and continu- 
ing throughout the entire course. The directions in which de- 
velopment is necessary in order to bring the cadet up to the 
typical physique, should be determined by a series of measure- 
ments and tests applied at his admission to the Academy, and 
repeated at suitable intervals. The deficiencies thus disclosed 
should be remedied by exercises expressly calculated to remove 
the defects. In this way the stronger ones will be more evenly 
balanced in their strength, while the weaker ones will not only 
be prevented from reducing their powers by an exceedingly un- 
hygienic practice, but will have their physical defects corrected 
and their entire system educated up to the highest requisites of 
the soldier. The rejection of the present dress coat, with the 
occupation of a new gymnasium and the provision of a scientific 
course in physical education extending throughout the entire 
course, would serve to mark a decided step in advance-a step 
from the tyranny of the tailor to the gentle rule of Nature. 
The fourth reason is the only one that carries with it any real 
weight, for it is specious and plausible. Admitting the truth of 
it, however, it should be remembered that the cadets at the 
Military Academy are picked youths chosen in the first place in 
many instances because of their fine physique as well as their 
mental capacity, and in every case required to have a certificate 
to the absence of physical disqualifications from a board of 
medical officers. 
Nature is very kind and endures, without resentment, many 
indignities, and in the extent to which she permits the body to 
be compressed and distorted we have a striking instance of her 
consideration for human vanity. In the darker quarters of the 
earth the head is sometimes squeezed out of shape, and again, 
the development of the feet is retarded, and yet nature often 
permits the victims of vanity to attain a green old age. 
Nevertheless, Nature is not equally lenient to all offenders, 
for, starting with a class of men supposed to be in exceptionally 
good physical condition, as the years of the course pass by the 
hitherto imperceptible physical defects crop out and the weaker 486 
UNIFORM OF WEST POINT CADET. 
men fall by the wayside, until, through this sifting process, those 
who are sent into the Service are of exceptional vigor. They are 
the men who have been able to resist the sanitary defects of their 
environments ; the weaker have gone to the wall. It is to be 
expected that the graduates, who have received commissions, 
should present no physical disqualifications - if they did, the 
medical examining boards failed to do their duty. In actual ex- 
perience, however, would not those who succeeded in graduating 
have been still stronger had the course been free from unsanitary 
surroundings? And would not many, who dropped out for 
physical reasons, have developed a robust physique and added 
greatly to the strength of the Service ? 
It may be recapitulated then that the dress coat is objection- 
able because factors, inherent in its construction, co-operate to 
cause a compression of the wearer's chest and abdomen, produc- 
ing a deleterious effect upon- 
1. The mental apparatus by limiting the nutriment of the brain. 
2. The respiratory system, by its mechanical obstruction to 
(«) thoracic respiration and QI) abdominal breathing. 
3. The circulatory system, increasing the wear and tear of 
the heart, QI) obstructing the flow of blood through the vessels 
and (f) inducing relaxation and dilatation of the venous canals. 
4. The process of digestion by Qi) the mechanical action of 
the ligature of the abdomen, and QI) sedondarily thorugh the 
effect upon respiration and circulation. 
Against these arguments in opposition to the garment, the 
only valid reasons in favor of it are its age and beauty-facts 
which can hardly be considered of great weight when opposed to 
health and hygiene. 
As a matter of fact, does actual experience sustain the opin- 
ion as to the deleterious effect of the wearing of the present pat- 
tern of dress hat and coat upon the health of the cadets? A 
reference to the medical records of the Academy will show that 
in his sanitary report for April, 1888, the Post Surgeon, Colonel 
Alden, completely answered this question by the statement that, 
" indigestion and headaches, attacks of nausea and faintness, and 
of exhaustion on parade, are more frequent among the cadets 
than they should be, and are due in some measure, at least, to 
this interference with circulation and respiration." Troubles 
such as these would be the natural consequences of wearing 
a garment like the coatee and a head-covering like the present UNIFORM OF WEST POINT CADET. 
487 
dress hat, and would, unquestionably, be obviated by the aban- 
donment of these articles for others constructed with a proper 
regard for laws of health and hygeine. 
Conclusions.-In view of the facts which I have here briefly 
summarized, it was concluded that the dress hat and coat of the 
Corps of Cadets were inherently faulty in their pattern and manu- 
facture and that they were so productive of evil consequences to 
the wearers that they should be discarded and articles of a more 
correct sanitary character substituted for them. 
The investigation being directed simply toward the sanitary 
aspects of the garments discussed, the question of the most 
desirable substitutes for them may be dismissed at the present 
time with but a few words. As regards the hat there seems to 
be a pretty general argreement among the officers consulted, 
that it might be satisfactorily replaced by a felt helmet of light 
weight. The white summer helmet is already worn by the cadets 
and makes a handsome and soldierly covering for the head. The 
gray color might be extended to the helmet which would enhance 
its beauty and utility. The helmet could readily be constructed 
so as tocomply with all the requirements of health and would, at 
the same time, offend none of the canons of military propriety. 
A blouse or tunic cut closely enough to the figure to display 
the form without compressing it, would be an advantageous substi- 
tute for the coatee. By various simple ornamental devices a 
blouse of this character could make a model of chaste ornamenta- 
tion and would give to the wearer even a more military aspect 
than the coatee. Moreover, it would afford a satisfactory gar- 
ment both for fatigue occasions and for mounted duty as does 
the blouse of the officer or soldier of the Army. The fact that the 
report of the medical examining board referred to has resulted in 
the recent adoption, as an addition to the cadet uniform, of a 
blouse which can be worn on certain occasions, does not diminish 
in any respect the force of the objections to the dress coat, which 
is still worn commonly enough to produce the evil effects enum- 
erated, and the entire abandonment of the garment is the only 
means of doing away with its injurious action upon its wearers. 
It has been thought, moreover, that a thorough discussion of 
the subject throughout the Service might conduce to this end and 
be productive of much good in other ways ; the views here stated 
then are presented in the hope that, through much criticism and 
extensive comment, new points may be brought out and a gen- 
eral agreement be attained.