The
following is a dictated translation of the hand-written application to
the U. S. Navy Examination Board during the Civil War by a civilian
physician/surgeon for a position as a medical officer in the Federal
Navy or for promotion to Assistant Surgeon by an Acting Assistant
Surgeon. The actual
applications are in the possession of the author and presented to
enlighten the general public and other researchers as to the education
process before and during the Civil War, the personal history of the
applicants, as well as to show their personal level of medical knowledge
in answering the questions asked by the Navy Board of Examiners.
(Some applicants failed to pass and did not serve or served in the Union
Army.)
This written presentation was first of a part of a two-part exam consisting of a written
exam and an oral exam.
Many of these applications are rich
with highly detailed medical content offering an interesting perspective
on the medical knowledge and practices of the period.
A broad sampling of these exams is presented to
give you a 'picture' of the type of applicant being examined and
admitted to or rejected by the Federal Navy in 1863. Much more detail
on the individuals and their personal and naval history will be
presented in a forth-coming book by Dr. Herman.
(The actual written exam photos are available, but not presented on
these pages due to the size of the files. An
example
of a hand-written exam is on the
'List of all Applicants' page)
If you have additional information or images for any of these
doctors, please
contact us.
A list with links to
all applicants in this survey of U.S. Navy Applicants for 1863
Example of a handwritten exam given by the Navy Examination Board
Applicant: Richard Henry Greene, M.D.
Navy Yard, Charlestown,
Nov. 3rd 1863.
Dr. Roshenberger,
Dear Sir:
I was born at New Haven, Conn.
November 14th 1837. After primary education in the public
school of that city, I entered Yale College, and graduated at that
institution after the usual course of study, July 31st,1857.
I commenced my medical studies in
M’ch 1860 at Bennington, Vt., and subsequently attended two courses of
lectures at Dartmouth College at which institution I graduated, October 30th
1863.
Yours Respectfully
R H Greene.
Bennington Vt.
[Board comment in pencil]: Fresh
from school; no practical experience – sprightly and tolerably well
booked. Weighs 220 lbs.
Questions by the Board:
Dr. R. H. Greene is requested to
write answers to the following questions.
1. What is the
origin, course and distribution of the femoral artery?
2. What are the
diagnostic symptoms of dysentery?
3. Name the
officinal preparations of opium, and the dose of each? [sic]
4. What is chyle,
where and how is it formed?
5. What changes are
produced in atmospheric air by respiration?
6. Define the terms
“specific gravity”, “temperature” and “latent heat”.
Answers by Greene:
1st. The femoral artery
is the chief branch of the external iliac, which after passing beneath
Pouparts Ligament between the femoral vein, and anterior crural nerve,
becomes properly the femoral artery. It passes downward through
Scarper’s Triangle, bounded anteriorly by the Sartorius muscle until it
passes through the tendinous portion of the adductor magnus when it
becomes the popliteal. The branches given off are the epigastric,
distributed to the muscles of the abdomen; the pudic, distributed to the
pudendum, the internal and external profunda distributed respectively to
the inner and outer part of the thigh. Just before the latter are given
off the circumflex ilii passes upwards and is distributed to the
external iliac region. The femoral also gives off as it passes through
the adductor magnus the anastomotic artery which anastomoses with the
tibial recurrent.
2nd. The diagnostic
symptoms of Dysentery are pain with other disagreeable sensations about
more or less of the region of the colon termina, tenesmus, frequent
going to stool + but comparatively slight discharges which it first
become white and then like meat washings. The smill [sic,
correction underline in pencil] of the evacuations is also diagnostic.
With all these there will be more or less pyrexia and constitutional
symptoms in accordance with the prevailing characters of the disease.
3rd. The extract, the
tincture and the Dover’s Powder. Dose of the extract one grain; of the
tincture, from five to ten drops; and of the Dover’s Powder ten grains.
4th. The chyme
after being mingled with the bile and pancreatic fluid becomes chyle,
of which the soapy matter is taken up by the lacteals and the
abumenose [sic] by the lymphatics.
5th. Atmospheric air by
endosmose is deprived of a large part of its oxygen and by exosmose
receives becomes charged [sic] with carbonic acid and vapor. But little
nitrogen, if any, is taken into the blood.
6th. The specific gravity
of any body is its weight as compared with an equal bulk of water.
Gases are compared with common air.
Temperature is the amount of caloric
in anybody as compared with the some common standard
Latent heat, is that heat of a
body which is not to be detected by the common tests. Iron shows its
latent heat by hammering.
R. H. Greene
Nov. 2nd,
1863.