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: Charles H. Page, M.D.
U.S. Navy Yard,
Charlestown Mass. Aug 25, 1862
Dr. Rouchenberger,
Sir,
I was born in Concord, New Hampshire,
Oct 2nd 1840 at which city I received my early education.
When I was 12 years of age I attended a select school at Wearre, N. H.
at which place I remained two months, from this place I went to
Hopkinton N. H. at which place I remained a long time. from this school
I went to New London. I graduated from this Institution, having fitted
for College. Instead of entering College I began the study of Medicine
and went into the office of C. P. Gage M.D. at Concord, N. H. I began
my studies in March 1860 with “Pomcoasts Wiston” and “Arnotts Elements
of Physics”.
I attended Lectures at the “Dartmouth
Medical College” which commenced its annual session Aug. 2nd.
1861. At the close of the term I returned to Concord and prosecuted my
studies. I had the advantages of Practical Anatomy last Spring at
Concord. Last May I went into the U.S. Marine Hospital at Chelsea Mass.
as Student; under L.W. Graves M.D. at which place I have resided since,
having the advantages that such a position affords.
Yours Respectfully,
Surg. U. S. N.
Yard
Charles H. Page
Charlestown, Mass.
Questions by the Board:
Dr. C. H. Page is requested to
right answers to the following questions.
1.What symptoms distinguished
dysentery, diarrhea, and enteritis?
2. What are the operative means
for treating retention of urine?
3. Define the terms “specific
gravity”, “center of gravity”, and gravitation?
4. How all our cathartics
classified therapeutically?
5. At what temperatures is the
density of water greatest?
6. How was food converted into
nutritious material by the organs which constitute the apparatus of
digestion?
Answers by Page:
1 Symptoms of Dysentery; Profuse
discharge “per anum” sometimes amounting to 20 or 30 stools a day. Dull
heavy pain over track of colon, with weak fluttering pulse, and extreme
prostration with emaciation. Distinguished from Diarrhoea by nature of
stools. In Dysentery, at first firm, changing to soft pasty, mucus,
serous, bloody. In Diarrhoea, watery and not so numerous. In Dysentery
disease of it colon with pain resulting. In Diarrhoea affection of the
Rectum with absence of pain in abdomen, as also of the “Tenesmus”
attending Dysentery. Distinguished from Enteritis by the discharge
which is usually absent in Enteritis it having a tendency to
Constipation which is often the cause of Enteritis. In Dysentery we
have a soft, flaccid abdomen rather than the swollen, tymomitic, and
tender one of Enteritis.
2 Catheter, Knife; either through
Rectum or Abdominal parietes, Perineum.
3 The chemical weight of a
substance.
Water usually taken as a standard
1000.
A substance so placed that the
Atmospheric pressure would exert its proper influence upon it would be
said to have its “Centre of Gravity” Balanced.
The falling of a substance is called
its “Gravitation”, or rather the force or weight with which it
Gravitates or settles.
4 Laxatives, Purgatives, Hydrogogus,
Vegetable and Saline are the primary classification which are divided
into the former.
5 I don’t remember the degree, but
know that after being cold to a certain temperature, additional cold
causes it to expand.
6 Food is taken through the mouth,
masticated, mixed with the product of the Parotid, Submaxillary, and
Sublingual Glands, swallowed, received in the Stomach, mixed with
“Gastric Juice”, passed into the Duodenum, where the Pancreatic Juice
and Bile are mingled with it, passed into the Jejunum, Ileum, Cecum,
Colon, Rectum. along its course the nutritive matter is taken up by the
Lacteals in the form of Chyle, passed into the
Receptaculum chyli, up the Thoracic
Duct, into the Left Subclavian Vein, then into the Right Auricle of the
Heart, then to the Right Ventricle, thence through the pulmonary Artery
to the lungs. Thence into the Left Auricle, from thence to the Left
Ventricle ready for distribution. The unassimilated matter is passed
off to the rectum, sphincter ani.
Charles H. Page
August 25th 1862
