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: David V. Whitney, M.D.
I am twenty three years ten
months and twelve days old—was born in Canisteo New York on the fifth
day of May 1839.
I never attend any college
but graduated at the High school in Madison Indiana. I was
examined at the time of my graduation in Calculus, Xenophon’s Anabasis,
Homer, and Horace. I completed my classical studies in June 1856.
I began the study of
medicine in Beardstown Illinois with C. E. Parker M.D. (a graduate
of Dartmouth College) in 1859, and studied with him nearly three years.
I graduated at the Saint
Louis Medical College in the session of 1861 ~ 1862.
I have had no other
opportunities for learning practical pharmacy and the physical
characters of drugs but those furnished by my preceptor’s office and my
own practice
I was appointed Asst.
Surgeon by the Governor of Missouri in March 1862 and was promoted to
the rank of surgeon in April of the same year. I have been in the
military service continually since that time. At the time of my
leaving my post (Springfield Mo) I was in charge of a large General
Hospital with over 600 patients My opportunities for
witnessing the practice of medicine and surgery both in the hospitals in
St. Louis (where I resided two years) and in my own hospital since
entering the service have been ample.
I’ve studied Botany and
Geology but am not proficient in either branch. I am sufficiently
acquainted with the German language to conduct a medical examination in
that tongue.
The course of my life since
I graduated in medicine has been such as least favors study and my
knowledge of the theoretical portions of my profession has given
way to the practical to so great a degree that I may be
considered in some things to be rather rusty
D. V. Whitney
Naval Asylum Philada
March 17~ 1863
Questions by the Board:
Questions to be answered in
writing, by, Dr. David V. Whitney
1. Name the membranes
that enveloped the fœtus
2. How are wounds
classed by Surgical writers?
3. What is the term of
utero gestation?
4. What is meant by
the term medical expert?
5. What is meant by
moral insanity?
6. What by insanity in
its general acceptation? [sic]
7. What are the
pathology and treatments of Diphtheria?
8. What are the
diagnostic symptoms of concussion and compression of the Brain?
9. Write, without
abbreviations the prescription for an opiate enema
Answers by Whitney:
1 Chorion and Amnion
2 Incised, punctured,
lacerated and contused
3 Nine months or about
two hundred and eighty days.
4 A medical expert is
a person who has such a knowledge of medical matters as to be able to
decide questions in relation to those subjects.
5 A person is affected
with moral insanity when their intellect is so perverted as to provent
[sic] them from judging between right and wrong.
6 Insanity is a
perversion of the mind so that the ideas excited by impressions on the
senses and the conclusions drawn from these impressions are erroneous
7 Diphtheria is a
disease of the mucous + sub mucous membranes of the trachea. It
first makes its appearance as an inflammatory affection but this
inflammation is soon followed by and exudation or false membrane from
which fact the disease is named. It is very rapid in its progress
and if fatal produces death by apnoea.
It is best treated on
general principles by the emetics diaphoretics + alteratives in the
first stage tonics and stimulants in the second period Clorate [sic,
correction marks in pencil] of potash is considered by many good
practitioners as a specific in this disease, and is almost wholly relied
on by them for its cure. I have used it with advantage.
8 Concussion is a
“jar” of the brain produced by a fall or blow on the head.
Compression may be produced by the same cause but its immediate cause is
either a depression of some part of the cranium the presence of blood
pus or foreign matters in the cranium Concussion is attended
with a slow full pulse cool moist skin dilated pupil while in
compression the pulse is quick + full the skin dry + hot the eye is
injected + the pupil (almost always) contracted. The symptoms and
concussion come on immediately on the receipt of the injury whilst those
of compression are commonly delayed for a longer or shorter time.
Compression if cause by a depressed piece of bone or the presence of a
foreign body may be attended by convulsions – Concussion never is.
9. Rx
Tincturae opii
ʓj
Aquae fontanae
℥iv
Pulveris Acaciae quantum sufficit
Misce – fiat enema
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 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.
D. V. Whitney
Candidate for the office of
Asst
Surgeon in the Navy of The United
States.
U.S. Naval Asylum
Philadelphia
March 17th
1863