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 Sturtevant, M.D.
Brooklyn June 1, 1861
(First Application)
The undersigned begs respectfully to
submit the following answers to the questions contained in the Circular.
My certificates of moral character
from the Governor of Massachusetts and also from the Dean of the Medical
Faculty of Harvard College, have been deposited with the presiding
officer of the Board. My age is twenty-one and ten months; having my
place of birth at Wrentham, Norfolk Co. Mass.
My educational advantages are as
follows – At seven years of age I commenced school at the private
academy of Rev. F. A. Fiske in Fall River Mass, and continued with the
same preceptor, though at different institutions, until the year 1857
one at the age of eighteen I was examined for admission to Yale College,
New Haven, Conn. and was about to enter, when pecuniary embarrassments,
so restricted my father’s means, as to render it impossible for him, at
that time to defray my collegiate expenses, and therefore I abandon the
idea of commencing my college education then; but I immediately engaged
a position as sub-master in Rochester Academy; Rochester Mass. where I
taught Latin and Greek for one year nearly, when at the
suggestion of D. H. Stover M.D. of Boston,
I entered upon my professional
studies at the Harvard Medical School in Boston, of which Dr.
Stover is Dean. At that institution I’ve continued until within three
weeks of this date making the time of my medical studies Three years
and two months. I’ve passed my examination at Cambridge
Ms. and shall received my diploma with my class in March next. I have
permission to refer to the Professors of the School.
I have constantly attended the
cliniques – medical and surgical, at the Mass Gen Hospital, and the
surgical manipulations – at which I have often assisted, during the
course of my studies. During my academic education I studied Latin five
years and Greek three. My post office address is that Newton Middlesex
Co Massachusetts.
All of which is respectfully submit
Charles Sturtevant
To the Medical Board U.S.N.
Brooklyn June 10, 1861
Questions by the Board with answers
by Sturtevant
Question: Describe the blood vessels
of the arm, fore arm and hands.
Answers: The bloodvessels [sic] of
the arm +c are divided as usual into arteries and veins. The arteries
are as follows: First the axillary, which is again divided into the
brachial and another which passes down the posterior surface
of the arms the name of which I do not at present recall. The
brachial artery is divided at the flexure of the elbow into the
ulnar and radial, and the superior profunda
artery which is the artery of the posterior part of the arm is divided
into the branches which answer to the ulnar and radial on the anterior
surface. At the carpus the radial divides into smaller arteries and
capillary vessels, which extend to the palmar and dorsal surfaces of the
hand and also to the fingers. The ulnar is also distributed to the
palmar + dorsal surfaces and to the thumb and index finger. The veins
follow very nearly the course of the arteries, and are as follows
first the basic [sic, correction mark in pencil] vein which
divides at the elbow into two others which correspond to the ulnar and
radial arteries, the names of which although perfectly familiar
to me I cannot at this moment I remember. I could trace them with ease
on a cadaver.
Question: “What operations are
performed on the arteries of the upper extremity?”
Answer: The only operations
performed on these arteries are ligation, and in aneurism [sic],
injection of the aneurismal sac.
Commencing with the innominate artery
this has been ligatured in several instances but never, in the course of
my surgical education have I seen or read of a successful case.
Ligature of the common carotid has been practiced, with of are but
little success. The subclavian has also been tide of a very large
percentage of fatal his shoes in its employment.
The further the ligation is placed
from the vital center, the greater are the chances of success, and when
we reach the axillary, the brachial and the arteries of the forearm and
hand we find them often ligatured with success in case of injury below
and also in aneurism. Arteries are composed of three coats – the inner
or mucous [correction and ? marks in pencil] the intermediate or
muscular coat composed of unstriped muscular fiber and consequently
involuntary and thirdly of the external or serous coat. In an aneurism
the inner or mucous coat becomes first softened then ruptured or
absorbed the intermediate and serous or external become greatly enlarged
and attenuated and, if not [unclear] by surgical manipulation they
finally burst and life is lost, but in many cases the artery may be tide
or the aneurismal sac, if small and conveniently situated may be reduced
by steady pressure or by the injection of some slightly astringent and
irritant solution into the sac itself to provoke a low stage of
inflammation and induce cohesion of its enlarge surfaces and thus
obliterate the sac. The substances used are a solution of peroxide of
iron, sesquichloride of iron, tincture of iodine or of galls.
Question: “What is the composition
of biliary calculi?”
Answer: The glyko-cholate of soda
–phosphate of lime oxalate of lime, and coloring substance of
secretion. When sawn through these calculi exhibit a series of
concentric rings each oftentimes composed of one salt alone while its
nearest rings on either side may consist of another salt or be
compounded of many.
Question: What is secretion?
Answer: Secretion may mean either a
process or a product. In the first instance secretion is a
subtle and but little understood process by which the various
emunctories of the human economy eliminate from the animal fluids the
substance and chemical constituents peculiar to themselves. Thus the
Liver, the largest gland in the body, secretes from the portal
circulation the peculiar fluid called bile which it collects for
use in the gall-bladder and pours into the duodenum to be mingled with
the chyme or digested food.
Secretion considered as a product is
the result of the process above described.
Question: What are the symptoms and
pathology of Bright’s disease?
Answer: The disease above mentioned
is more technically expressed by the term suprarenal cachaxia
[(?) in pencil] and its symptoms and pathology are as follows. In its
earlier stages this disease simulates very nearly the common bilious
remittent fever, in addition to which as the affection progresses pain
in the sacro-lumbar region is complained of, and the very
important diagnostic symptom of the presence of albumin in large
quantity in the urine is detected by subjecting that fluid to gentle
heat in a test-tube when the albumin will be coagulated and sink to the
bottom of the tube. As the disease progresses the blood becomes loaded
with urea; anasarca of the lower extremities ensues, ulcers form on the
legs which are almost proof against efforts to heal them; the breath and
perspiratory secretion, becomes very fetid and the patient dies
comatose. Autopsy reveals the seat of the disease in the kidney and
capsule [(?) in pencil] and oftentimes the affected organ will have so
degenerated as to leave nothing but its fibrous envelope. This disease
is at present considered by most pathologists as incurable.
Question: What are Cathartics and
their modes of operation. [sic]
Answer: Cathartics may be divided
into three classes, viz: Laxatives, Purges and Drastics. Laxatives are
those milder medicines and articles of food which act by rendering the
feces of a softer consistency and also by a moderate degree of stimulant
power on the peristaltic movements. Purges are more active and must
consequently be given with greater caution, as they are capable by their
irritant properties of exciting extensive and severe inflammation.
Drastics are the most severe of Cathartics and act by direct irritation
of the mucous membrane of the intestinal canal. Cathartics are given
sometimes with direct reference to some particular portion of the
intestines thus Senna for the ileum and Alou for the rectum. They
operate either mechanically or by being absorbed into the blood.
Question: State the causes of
obstructed labor?
Answer: This delay or obstruction
of labor may be dependent 1st on some deviation from the
normal proportions of the maternal pelvis, 2nd on the
position of the fetus, 3rd on the unnatural size of the
foetal head as in hydrocephalus, 4th upon the state of the
soft parts such as great himefaction or engorgement, and 5th
upon the weakened or enfeebled condition of the mother from whatever
cause, and the consequent irregular and powerless uterine contractions.
Question: What are the different
races of man and how does the skeleton of the negro differ from
that of the Caucasian?
Answer: The races of men are five
the number Caucasian Malay Negro American and Mongolian or Asiatic.
The skeleton of the negro differs
from that of the Caucasian + European in the greater obtuseness [(?) in
pencil] of the facial angle, and the higher malar bones, in the broad
flat jaw and in the flatness of the vomer and nasal cartilages. Also in
greater prominence of the sacrum + coccyx and the length of the “os
calcis”.
Respectfully submitted
Charles Sturtevant
Sept. 3, 1863. (Re-submission
after graduation at Harvard in 1862)
Charles Sturtevant, was born in
Wrentham, Norfolk County, Massachusetts, on the twenty eighth day of
July, eighteen hundred and thirty-nine.
From my earliest school education
until I was twelve years of age, I was a student at Day’s Academy in my
native place; at that age I went to its Rochester Mass., where I
completed my school education, and became one of the preceptors of that
institution. At nineteen I entered the medical department of Harvard
University at Boston, and graduated at that institution on the seventh
of March 1862, since which time I have practiced my profession in the
city of New Bedford Mass.
Charles Sturtevant.
Boston Navy Yard
Sept. 3, 1863.
[Board comment in
pencil]: Dr. Sturtevant is better qualified to have medical charge of
a small ship’s company than a very large one. He is quick, but
inaccurate and realize rather too much on intuitive genius. At times
go, is tolerably save –
Questions by the Board:
Dr. Charles Sturtevant is requested
to write answers to the following questions? [sic]
1. Name the officinal
preparations of opium and the dose of each? [sic]
2. What changes are
produced in atmospheric air by respiration?
3. How was pneumonia
to be distinguished from bronchitis?
4. How was retention
to be distinguished from suppression of urine?
5. What is the origin
course, [sic] and distribution of the left carotid artery?
6. What substances
enter into the composition of atmospheric air?
Answers by Sturtevant:
1st. Tincture of
Opium or Laudanum: dose twenty-five drops. Camphorated Tincture of
Opium or Elixir Paregoric, dose fʓ. Sulphate of Morphia gr. 1/16 to ¼.
Acetate of Morphia gr. 1/16 to ¼. Linimentum Saponis et Opii, ad
libitum. Pulvis Opii – gr I Pulvis Opii et Ipecacuanhae dose X grs.
2. The absorption of oxygen and
evolution of carbonic acid.
3. By the following diagnostic signs
–
1st In bronchitis there is first a
dry bronchial rhoncus, then a mucous ràle and subcrepitant, in the
capillary bronchi. Pneumonia is distinguished by being a congestion or
inflammation of the parenchyma or substance of the lung and affords the
following physical signs – in the first stage crepitant ràle over the
whole congested portion.
second stage bronchial respiration
bronchophony, and neither healthy murmur nor crepitation – dulness [sic]
on percussion sputa extremely vicid and streaked with brownish stains.
In the third stage or grey
hepatization difficulty of breathing, turbid sputa mucus gurgling ràle,
carcinous [?, unclear] respiration.
4th Retention of urine is to be
distinguished from suppression of urine by the great fullness and
tension of the bladder in retention which may not be present in
suppression from the fact that retention may be only from spasm of the
neck of the bladder – The symptoms a suppression are more general –
anxiety, restlessness pain in the kidneys, urinous smell
5th The left
common carotid artery arises from the innominata and divides near the
intersection of the omo-hyoid muscle with the sterno-cleido-mastoid
muscle, into the internal and external carotids, the external is
distributed to the external muscles and tissues of the head, forming the
temporal artery, and other external arteries – the internal is
distributed to the inside of the head and the brain.
6th. Oxygen and
hydrogen, and nitrogen form atmospheric air –
Rx
Copaibae
℥ii
Cubebae Tinct
℥iii
Krino Tinct
ʓi
Spts Nit dulce.
ʓss
Mucilage acaiae
℥iii
M ft misturae. S. sumendus cochleariae magnum ter die –
Charles Sturtevant.
Navy Yard
Boston Sept. 3, 1863.
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
