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: Henry F.
McSherry, M.D.
Naval Asylum, Philada
September 2nd 1863
Surgeon James M. Greene, U.S. Navy
President Board Medical Examiners.
Sir,
I received the commission of
assistant Surgeon in the Navy, in July 1860; and was ordered for duty
onboard the Sloop of War Vandalia, fitting out at New York, in November
’60. We sailed in December, for the East Indies –; Stopped at Porte
Grande, (Island St. Vincent, one of the Cape de Verde) one week, + had
to go to Porta Praya for water; we remained at the latter place one
week; – then sailed for Cape of Good Hope: Where we remain three
weeks. We return to New York from there, + were immediately send off
Charleston [sic], to blockade. This was in June 1861. We took part in
the capture of Forts at Port Royal S.C., 7th Nov 61, +
returned to New York, in Decr. I was transferred to the
Sciota, Steam Gunboat, fitting out at Philada, and went to
sea about the 20th of Decr, + joined the Western
Gulf Squadron, + took part in the engagements in the Mississippi River,
including the capture of the City of New Orleans, April 24th
1862. We were then in the advanced fleet, below Vicksburg, till June; I
was invalided home, for Diarrhoea + Intermittent fever, June 10th,
+ was on leave till Septr ’62, when I was ordered to the U.
S. Steam Frigate Wabash at Port Royal, where I remained till June 18th
1863. Since then I have been on duty at the Philada Navy
Yard.
Very respectfully
H. F. McSherry
Asst. Surgeon U.S. Navy
Questions by the Board:
Questions to be answered in writing,
by Asst Surgn Henry F. McSherry, U.S.N.
1. Describe the operation of
Laryngotomy.
2. What are the symptoms + treatment
of paronychia?
3. Give a formula, without symbols
or abbreviations, for Scudamore’s mixture.
4. Describe the preparation, medical
properties and uses of Strychnia –– How does it produced death?
5. What is death, and at what points
in the circle of functions can it began?
6. What physical characters in urine
(including microscopic appearances) indicate disease?
7. Describe the anatomical
arrangement of the vessels in the lobules of the liver.
8. Give the symptoms of catarrh of
the bladder.
9. What is Glycerine?
Answers by McSherry:
1. Laryngotomy is performed – by
placing the patient on his back, on a bed of a convenient height, the
shoulders elevated, – head thrown back – the clothes having been removed
to expose the part, – an incision is made, with an ordinary scalpel in
the median line, through the skin + superficial fascia, vertically
downwards between the thyroid + cricoid cartilage, which exposes the
crico-thyroid membrane, which latter is then divided. Occasionally a
small artery running horizontally across the space will give trouble by
bleeding; care must be taken that the blood does not get into the
larynx.
2. Paronychia begins by a feeling
of heat + tension, swelling + redness. Then the pain becomes throbbing,
+ very intense – + the system sympathises [sic]; then is slight fever
etc. The application of Nitrate of Silver, so as to blister will
sometimes arrest the progress of the disease. Poultices may be applied
to promote suppuration – but the great remedy is a free incision – so
as divide the sheaths of the tendon.
3. Rx
Magnesiae
Sulphates uncias duas
Magnesiae Ustae
drachmas duas
Colchici Seminis
Tincturae drachmas duas fluidus
Aquae purae
uncias octo.
Misce, et fiat mistura. Sumenda uncia una ter die, vel unciae duae omne
mane
4. Strychnia is in alkaloid found
in nux vomica in combination with igasuric acid. Is obtained by the
action of dilute Sulphuric acid on the nuts. The Sulphuric acid may be
got rid of by lime. – Appears in small white crystals, soluble in
water, + intensely bitter. Is used in paralysis not dependent on local
lesions. Is a direct stimulus to the spinal cord; – produces to
tetanic spasms. Is used in paralysis of the bladder; + is a tonic; in
small doses, promotes digest and + increases peristaltic action. Dose –
1/30 to 1/60 of a grain. Produces death by paralysis of the muscles of
respiration by over stimulation of the Medulla + spinal cord.
5. Death is cessation of the
functions of respiration, circulation, and innervation, – the tripod of
life. It may begin in the head, at the heart, are in the lungs.
6. The urine may be deficient in
quantity or in excess; + it may be altered in quality. It may contain
albumen, lithic acid, Sugar; and may be acid or alkaline: – Above or
below its normal specific gravity – 1016 to 1.020. There is
sometimes a deposit – constituting gravel –; lithic acid, with soda,
ammonia, phosphoric acid, oxalic acid, lime: – torulae, or yeast fungus.
7. A portal vein between the
lobules – inter-lobular – lobular to the lobule, on the circumference,
+ distributed within the lobule; hepatic vein begins in the centre of
lobule with hepatic duct – intralobular; emerges + called sublobular.
8 Catarrh of bladder is noticed by
pain in the region of the bladder, or at orifice of urethra, frequent
calls, constant disposition, desire to make water; fever, furred
tongue: high colored, sometimes alkaline urine: flakes of epithelium or
pus may be dischgd [sic] – or mucous – + albumen will there be found.
9. Glycerine is the basis of all
fats; is in combination in them with oleaic, eleaic, margaric or Stearic
acid. Is very sweet.
H. F. McSherry
Asst Surgeon U.S.N.
Sept. 4th 1863
Delirium Tremens:
Delirium Tremens, is a disease
peculiar to drunkards, or those who use, or abuse alcoholic liquors.
The disease is said to have been caused by opium and tobacco.
The symptoms are, at first, Slight;
there is a nervous, agitated manner observed; with a restlessness, – a
wild, wandering expression, – which, if not controlled, soon passes
into furious madness. The patient becomes violent; can not sleep, and
refuses to eat. The skin is often covered with a cold clammy sweat; and
death occurs from exhaustion. There is no constant lesion observed
after death: there is commonly slight effusion into the ventricles,
and I have seen, twice, marked opacity of the arachnoid.
The treatment consists in controlling
irregular nervous action, and inducing sleep as early as possible.
Opium is mainly relied on for this purpose; it may be given combined
with camphor; or the simply [sic] the Tinct. Opii Camph. Morphia is a
favorite form, of administering the narcotic. It sometimes happens
that enormous doses have been taken without good effect: and many
writers think that death has frequently been caused by too large doses.
Chloroform or Ether may be used to induce quiet + Sleep; their effect is
not as permanent as the effect of Opium. Some persons are in the habit
of prescribing the particular kind of liquor that the patient has been
in the habit of using; – + this is followed, they tell us, by the
happiest result.
It is advisable to get some food
taken, as early as possible; as it is a sign of amendment where the
appetite returns. The disease is said to be caused by an abstinence
from drink after having used it too freely. The Reports of the
Massachusetts General Hospital state, that every day the most inveterate
drunkards are brought into the Wards, and that they do not find delirium
to follow the sudden abstraction of the Stimulus.
The disease seems to consist in a
hyperaesthesia, or excessive sensibility + irritability of the nervous
system, the brain + spinal cord. The remedies are stimulants;
antispasmodics, + narcotics. Perfect quiet + rest must be enjoined,
though restraint or confinement is not always necessary nor advisable,
except where there is danger of violence on the part of the patient
towards himself or others.
On board ship, among Sailors, where
the disease is very common, constraint is almost indispensable, if the
delirium be at all excessive.
H. F. McSherry, Asst. Surgeon U.S.N.
Naval Asylum
Philada.
Sept. 2nd 1863