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 S. Plympton, M.D.
I was born in Cambridge,
Massachusetts, on the thirteenth day of March, 1838.
I was a pupil at the Hopkin’s
Classical School in Cambridge until I was sixteen years old. Three
years were then spent by me in the country under a private tutor.
During this time my attention was directed to the study of the common
English school branches, afterwards to Algebra, Geometry, Natural
Philosophy, Ancient Geography, Latin and Greek. I read Caesar’s Com. on
the Gallic War, Cicero’s Orations, and seven books of the Æneid of
Virgil. In Greek I went only through the reader. In the spring of 1857
I returned to Cambridge and entered a private class in medicine under
the jurisdiction of the Lawrence Scientific School. The teachers were
Drs Jefferies and Morril [sic, Morrill] Wyman and Drs John Ware and
Prof. [Josiah] Cook [sic, Cooke]. There were given me opportunities to
study Chemistry and the drugs as well as the other branches of
medicine.
I remained under their tuition for
three years taking at the same time three courses of lectures in the
Harvard Medical School where I receive [sic] a diploma in the Fall of
1860. I then went to New York and listened to a course of lectures at
the College of Physicians and Surgeons. This institution gave me a
diploma in the Spring of 1861. I then was examined for a position in
Bellevue Hospital, and having been admitted, remain there my full time
of eighteen months. This institution also gave me a diploma in October
1862.
I then applied for the position of
Acting Assistant Surgeon in the United States Army and in that Service
have I remained up to this time. While attending lectures in New York I
paid attention to the eyes under Drs [Henry D.] Noyes and [C. R.] Agnew
and at Mott’s Ophthalmic Hospital. I have no knowledge of Modern
languages except that obtained at school viz French and German grammar.
Henry S. Plympton
Naval Asylum Philadelphia
March 2nth 1863
Questions by the Board:
Questions to be answered in writing,
by Henry S Plympton.
1. What is flooding, and the means
employ’d to arrest it?
2. Give the rationale of union of
the long bones.
3. Write a prescription (Latin) for
a cough mixture, without the use of symbols or abbreviations.
4. What is a difference between an
artery and a vein.
5. Why does the blood returned from
the extremities to the heart. [sic]
6. Where the essential constituents
of food.
7. Symptoms and treatments of Acute
Laryngitis.
8. What preparations of opium are
used in medicine?
9. What is Anthrax?
1. Flooding is the hemorrhage
supervening upon childbirth. To arrest it the woman should be kept in
the supine position, ice should be placed upon the abdomen or hot water
first and then ice. If the uterus does not then contract I should give
one or two drachms of the tincture of ergot. If it should still
continue I should introduce my hand into the uterus and remove the clots
and any membranes which I should probably find there, this would be a
last resort. Then I might even introduce ice into the uterus but this
is rarely to be tried. If the afterbirth or placenta should not have
comeaway however and the hemorrhage were great I should remove it by the
hand if the patient showed signs of weakness. Cold water poured from
above onto the abdomen and kneading the uterus externally have often
been used but the application of ice is full as good and neater.
2. When a long bone has been broken
without being exposed to the external air its ends are first covered by
a lot of blood which has come from the ruptured vessels. This must
first be reabsorbed and its place filled by a fibro-albuminous deposit
containing cells with nuclei. The latter develop into cartilaginous
fibers united to the end of the bone. This is the ligamentous union.
This bond of union is next the seat of the deposit of earthly matter
which radiates from the formative cells and from the exposed periostium.
Pieces of periostium removed from the bone and grafted into vascular
tissue will there form bone. The periostium grows from both cut or
broken ends covering thus the new bone.
3. Recipe
Tinctura Hyoscyami
Tinctura Lupulin
Tinctura Cubebæ
Spirti Aitheris
Compositi ana (vel utrinque) uncias duas
Acidi Hydrocyanici
Diluti drachman unam et semissum
Misce.
4. The coats of an artery are much
the cure than those of the vein having a larger amount of elastic
fibrous tissue. The former when not containing blood retains its form,
the vein does not. The vein contains valves above (or on the side
nearest the heart) all considerable branches. These prevent the reflux
of blood from the heart and assist passively in advancing it by
resisting the backward flow when the vessel is compressed by muscular
action.
5. The blood is driven to the heart
by a vis a tergi in the capillary system, by muscular action, aided by
its valves, and perhaps by a contraction of the tube itself which is
thought to be stimulated by the contained fluid.
6. Food to support animal life
contains Oxygen, Hydrogen, Carbon and perhaps Nitrogen, so combined
that, if it is of inorganic origin, it can be changed to an organic
compound by the fluids with which it comes in contact in the body, or
easily divided into its ultimate principles. Neither one of these
substances will support life alone nor in excess.
7. Acute laryngitis is
characterized, first by dryness of the lining membrane; then by the
effusion of serum beneath it, causing dyspnoea; then the lining membrane
becomes ulcerated and sloughs. This ulceration if not arrested will
implicate the cartilages and muscles of the part. Unhealthy
granulations spring up which may obstruct the canal or may slough. In
the first stage the œdema of the rima may be seen, and relieved by the
lancet. In the second the loss of voice with expectorations of bloody
debris will point to the locality of the disease. Pain in the part also
now increases. This subsides in the sloughing stage. The nitrate of
silver treatment, locally applied, with wines internally, is the best in
the nonspecific form. When syphilis is the first cause mercurials are
required. In the latter stages Laryngotomy or Tracheostomy may be
required but should not be attempted if it is possible to avoid it as
the tube can rarely be removed afterwards. Sometimes also this
operation is required in the first stage.
8. Pulvis Opii vel Germanam [?] Opii.
Extractum Opii Aquosum. Tinctura Opii. Vinum Opii. Extractum Opii
Fluidum Aquosum. Tinctura Opii Camphorata.
Morphia. Morphia Sulphas. Quinidia.
Cinchomine.
9. Carbuncle is an inflammation in
the areolar and subareolar tissues characterized by swelling, redness,
then white shining tense appearance with sharp pain. As the tumor
increases it becomes circumscribed, coneshaped, red and fluctuating at
its apex. There has here been an effusion of fibrinous material, cells
and albumenoid substance. This mass has broken down in the center,
being but feebly organized, and pus has been formed about this mass
which thus acts as a foreign body. This must be removed but even then
the disease is not half cured as it would be in a boil as there has been
so large a mass of half organized material placed about it which cuts
under the knife like the intervertebral cartilage or like citron. This
muscle all be thrown off by nature or the use of acids or Venira paste.
This disease is generally found in old persons or vitiated
constitutions. The favorite seat is on the spinal column. It sometimes
takes on a cancerous nature, repeatedly recuring [sic] and containing
cancer cells.
Henry S. Plympton
Naval Asylum, March 5th
1863.
Certificate of Physical Capacity
I declare on honor that my health at
this time is 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, or hemorrhoids, nor
am I aware that there is anything 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
Henry S Plympton
Candidate for the office of
Assistant Surgeon in the Navy
of the United States.
U.S. Naval Asylum.
Philadelphia
March 3rd
1863.