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 a hand-written application for the position of
assistant surgeon to the U.S. Navy medical department board of examiners
during the Civil War. The exam includes a personal biography and his
answers to questions submitted by the board during 1863. This is just
one of ninety three handwritten exams for Assistant Surgeon in the Union
Navy in this presentation.ctual
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: William
Thomas Kemp, M.D.
Philada. April 20th 1863.
Medical Board of
U.S. Navy.
Gentlemen,
I have I was born on the 5th
day of April 1841 near St. Michaels, Talbot County, Maryland.
My education at school was a plain
English one, with addition of two years study of Latin. My classical
and scientific information is small. I have read some little of Natural
History. I am not acquainted with any of the Modern languages.
I began the study of medicine at my
place of birth, with Dr. W. N. Pindell of that place, who is now all an
Act. Asst Surgeon in the U.S. Navy. I attended two courses
of lectures at the University of Maryland where I graduated on the 7th
of March last.
I had the use of a splendid Medical
library at my disposal. During the past summer I was on the U.S.
Gunboat Patroon as Surgeons Steward under my Preceptor. I returned home
the first of September 1862 and enter one of the Government hospitals in
Baltimore as Act Cadet. I held this situation until the
first of November, when I entered the University of Maryland. During my
stay as Cadet my opportunities for observing the practice of Medicine
and Surgery were splendid.
My address in Philadelphia is: N. W.
Corner of Richmond and Palmer Sts. When at home, St. Michaels, Talbot
County Maryland.
With high respect, your Obt. Servt.
Wm Thom Kemp.
Questions by the Board:
Questions to be answered in writing,
by Dr Wm J. Kemp
1. What is fracture, + what is the
rationale of cure?
2. What is Hydrocele, and how is it
diagnosed?
3. What is flooding, + how was it
arrested?
4. What is the composition of the
Atmospheric air?
5. Who discovered this composition?
6. What is the composition of water?
7. Write a prescription for an
active cathartic pill, containing two vegetable and two mineral
substances – without the use of abbreviations.
8. What is the pathology Ascites?
9. What is the portal circulation?
Answers by Kemp:
1. Fractures is solution of
continuity of bone by violence, if the extremities are held in
apposition by mechanical means, the surrounding structures trow [sic]
out plastic lymph which envelops the bone gradually becoming converted
into bony texture. As recovery takes place, this Callous as it is
called, gradually contracts.
2. Hydrocele is a collection of
liquid in the cavity of the tunica vaginalis, it fluctuates upon
handling, does not disappear upon the patient assuming the recumbent
position, by the patients coughing it does not receive any impulse like
hernia; it is slightly transparent by holding a candle behind it.
3. Flooding is a profuse hamorrhage
[sic] from the uterine vessels, the arrest depend upon circumstances,
sometimes by bloodletting, by the administration of Sedatives and
Astringents, by the application of cold, and by the tampon.
4. The air is composed of oxygen and
nitrogen
5. I do not remember the discoverer.
6. Waters composed of oxygen and
hydrogen.
7. Rx
Hydrargyri Chloridi Mitis,
gr xii.
Pulvis Rhei, . . . . .
. . . . . . .
Pulvis Colocynthidis . . .
. . . ano grxii
Marsa Hydrargyri, . . . .
. . . . grxi
Fiat pillula sex.
Signa. two pills at a dose.
8. When the portal vein becomes
obstructed or the liver diseased, or obstruction elsewhere to the return
of venous blood, effusion may take place in the cavity of the Abdomen
this constitutes Ascites.
9. The portal circulation is the
return of blood, through the portal veins, to the liver from the
Chylopoietic viscera.
Wm T. Kemp
Certificate of Physical Capacity.
I declare on honor that, my health
is, at this time good and robust, and to the best of my knowledge and
belief, I am free from any accidental or constitutional defects, and
without any predisposition to Epilepsy, Phthisis, Gout, Apoplexy, or
chronic disease of any kind.
I am not at present affected with
varicocele, disease of the urinary organs, hernia, hemorrhoids, nor am I
aware that there is any thing hereditary in my constitution, which would
hereafter be likely to incapacitate me for the arduous duties of a
Medical Officer of the Navy.
All my organs of sense are without
imperfection.
Wm Thom Kemp.
Candidate for the office of
Asst Surgeon in the
Navy of the United States.
U.S. Naval Asylum
Philada
April 20th 1863.