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PROBLEMIn former years the phenomenon of bed-wetting in adults was largely attributed t o such organic factors as bladder size, C. N. S. imperfections, or genetic aberrations.The prevalent contemporary view of this subject, concurred in by the present writers, tends to favor a psychogenic explanation for the overwhelming proportion of such cases('' 2 v 3 , 4. s t 'I, 9, lo. 11, 12). I n any event, there can be no doubt as to the considerable importance to the armed services of making the most effective use of raw recruits who have a pre-service history of enuresis, or who show the symptom during recruit training. This is one aspect of the general problem concerning the use of marginal manpower by the armed forces.MAGNITUDE AND HISTORY OF THE PROBLEM I n a military situation with large numbers of people living in close quarters, enuresis creates a morale problem for the entire group as well as for the enuretic himself. Most branches of the armed services therefore will not retain proven chronic enuretics. Since many conceal this fact upon entering the service, especially if they are volunteers, and since in any event a claimed history of enuresis is not in itself cause for rejection a t pre-induction or induction examination, large numbers of men with enuresis are sent home with unsuitability discharges after a very brief military career. This expensive procedure has been going on for many years, certainly since 1942 according to the senior author's experience. I n addition to economic waste, there is the damage to his self-esteem suffered by any volunteer discharged in this manner against his desire-and there are many such men in this group.The question may be asked, "Why not just exclude from the armed forces all those with a history of enuresis?" This sounds logical and might be a defensible position where a comfortable surplus manpower situation permanently prevailed. Actually, more than this is involved. Many with an enuretic history get over the symptom in a short time when placed in the military situation. To automatically exclude all claimed enuretics might also encourage attempted evasion of military service by poorly motivated individuals. A more appropriate question to ask is, "What can be done to salvage more of this marginal material during the recruit training process?" The psychology staff a t Marine Corps Recruit Depot, San Diego since 1953 has been carrying on a series of studies designed t o explore this point of view.The first study@) investigated the hypothesis that under rigid experimental conditions, a significant reduction in enuresis-involved admissions to the psychiatric observation ward would result if recruits with recent enuretic histories received brief psychotherapeutic support during the regular psychiatric screening procedure. It was found that this was indeed the case, control and experimental groups differing by 60% in their admission rates. As a result of these findings, the procedure used experimentally above was instituted for the regular screening of all enuretics.A follow-up ...

93value of brief supportive therapy as part of the regular psychiatric screening procedure is still somewhat in doubt, however at this point, it does seem to result in a lower rate of discharges involving enuresis during the early months of training. The issue can be resolved through a more definitive study. SUMMARYThe question of the suitability of the enuretic recruit for military service was briefly discussed together with relevant experimental findings. Data on 182 Marine recruits with recent histories of enuresis were also presented which supported the authors' contention that as a group, these men are not the military misfits they are often assumed to be. This was evidenced in part by the fact that 70.9% of them were apparently still performing adequately in a duty status 18 months after induction.2