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: William Commons, M.D.
To the Board of Naval Surgeons –
I respectfully state that I was born in Franklin Township, Wayne County
Indiana; that I was twenty four years old on the 26 day of September
1862.
Besides the educational
advantages of the Common Schools of the country, and those afforded by
“Franklin Township Industrial Academy”. – I studied at Oberlin College,
Ohio, two terms. My classical attainments are limited, being confined
to Andrew’s and Stoddard’s Latin grammar, Andrew’s Latin Reader, and
Caesar’s Commentaries on the Gallic War. My Scientific course besides
the elementary branches, included English grammar, Geography, Algebra,
Davies Legendre, (including Church’s Trigonometry) Coffin's Conic
Sections, Loomis’s Calculus and Olmstead’s Mathematical Astronomy, Whotely’s Logic and Rhetoric, Lectures on Geology, Comparative
Physiology and Concology [sic]. I last studied at Oberlin, Ohio. I
have not studied modern languages.
I have been engaged exclusively
in the study of Medicine for the last three years. My preceptor was Dr.
R. G. Brandon, of Whitewater P.O. Wayne County Indiana. I began my
course at the Medical Department of University of Michigan, where I
attended lectures six months, taking at the same time a course of
sixteen weeks in practical Anatomy. I was one year in the Army, Acting
Medical Cadet, under direction of Elios Fisher M.D. Surgeon of the 16th
Regt. Ind. Vol. I graduated at “Medical College of Ohio” at Cincinnati
Ohio, July 6 1863. My “opportunities for acquiring a knowledge of
pharmacy, the physical properties of drugs, and for witnessing the
practice of Medicine and Surgery”- have been confined to filling
prescriptions in the office of my preceptor and for the Regiment. I
witnessed the practice of Medicine and Surgery one year in the
Regiment. I attended Prof. Geo. C. Blackman’s clinical lectures at St.
John’s Hospital Cincinnati and was two months Resident Physician of
Commercial Hospital Cincinnati, which place I left to attend this
examination.
I presented “testimonials of
moral character etc” to Secretary of the Navy, when I made application
to be admitted to examination, and am not now provided with any.
Respectfully
William Commons
U.S. Naval Asylum
Philadelphia Sept 24 1863
No 1520 Race Street
Post office
White Water P.O.
Wayne County, Indiana
Questions of the Board:
Questions to be answered in writing,
by Dr. Wm. Commons
1. Give some accounts of colchicum,
its source, properties preparations uses.
2. Enumerate the constituents of the
urine in health + disease.
3. What is heat? describe its
affects + laws.
4. What is the diagnosis of
compression of the brain?
5. How is the bladder tapped in
retention of urine?
6. What is the treatment of fracture
of the Patella?
7. Describe the anatomy of the
Kidney.
8. Give the symptoms, diagnoses, +
treatment of small pox.
9. What are the constituents of
human milk? How does it differ from the milk of the cow?
Answers by Commons
No 1 The Meadow Suffron.
Root and seed used in medicine. Dimetic, Cathartic, Emetic and by some,
it is said to be narcotic. Can be given in substance, in tincture, or
wine of Colchicum, and in fluid or solid (acetic) extract. Used in
Rheumatism, Gout, Chronic Epididymitis, and in various chronic
inflammations. Its continued use is said to be attended with lowers of
spirit, irritability of temper, and confusion of intellect.
2. Water, Urea, Creatine,
Creatonine [sic, correction marks in pencil] phosphates of soda and
lime, Chloride of sodium, salts of Magnesia, an undetermined substances,
called extractive matters.
In disease, the normal
constituents of urine may be increased or diminished, there is abnormal
constituents the present. Sugar, bile, lactic acid, albumin, lithates
of ammonia and soda, phosphates of ammonia and magnesia and accidental
substances.
3. An imponderable agent; not
choloric [sic, correction marks in pencil], but the results of it.
That is choloric [sic, correction marks in pencil] is an element of
matter, which originates heat. It is omnipresent with manner.
One of its effects on matter, is
to increase its bulk by expansion. It determines the condition of
matter, whether solid, fluid or gasseous [sic, correction marks in
pencil]. It determines the distribution of plants and animals. Its
effects are of great importance in physiology and medicine.
One of its laws is to equalise
itself by transmission, as when a heated body is placed in the midst of
colder bodies. It will give out its heat by transmission, or radiation,
until all are of equal temperature. It is reflected, the angle of
incidence always equaling the angle of reflection. Its intensity
diminishes as the square of the distance increases.
No 4 Contracted pupil, as a
general rule, slow and labored pulse, countenance flushed and livid,
stertorous [sic] breathing, hot surface and paralysis.
No 5 Per Rectum, by means
of a curved trochar and canula. Above the symphisis [sic] pubis, by
means of a straight trochar and canula.
No 6 “What is the treatment of
fracture of the patella?”
Extend the leg, and keep it
extended by means of a long split. Approximate the fragments of the
bone, by means of adhesive strips. Or, take a piece of common roller of
sufficient length and width, and with adhesive strips, confined to the
thigh and leg, above and below the patella, letting it be slack in the
middle. Place a compress, under the bandage against the upper edge of
the upper fragments, and a corresponding one against the lower edge of
the inferior fragment. Approximate by means of the Spanish Windlas
[sic].
No 7 “Describe the anatomy of the
kidney.”
Located its side of the spinal
column, corresponding with the last dorsal, and first and second lumbar
vertebrae. The right one is situated lower down than the left one.
They are three or four inches long, two to two a half inches wide, and
about an inch and a half thick. Concave internally, convex externally;
flat or concave behind, in slightly convex in front and covered with
peritoneum. Each kidney is composed of an external cortical, and
internal medullary substance. The medullary substance is arranged in
pyramids, called Malphygian [sic, correction marks in pencil] pyramids,
four to six or more in number. These are surrounded by the Cortical
substance, which makes up the greater bulk of the kidney. The renal
artery enters at, and the renal vein makes its exit from the hilus,
on internal edge of the organ. The right artery and left vein are
longer their fellows. Upon entering the kidney the artery breaks up
into divisions, ramifies through the organ, its branches become more and
more minute; its blood is taken up by the capillaries and branches of
the renal vein, which unite at the hilus into one. The tubuli
urinifere runs on the apices of the pyramids to their
bases, passed into the Cortical substance of the kidney, become
convoluted and pass on to their origin in the Malphygian [sic] bodies,
which appears small bulbs at their extremities. Each Malphygian [sic,
correction marks in pencil] corpuscle is surrounded with a net work
[sic, correction marks in pencil] of blood vessels. The calyces
[correction marks in pencil, unknown reason] lead into the infudibula,
and they to the pelvis of the kidney, which is expansion of the ureter.
The kidneys are supplied with blood by the renal arteries, which are
branches of the abdominal aorta. The renal veins join the ascending vena
cava. They are supplied with nerves [? blurred] from the dorsal
nerves, and renal plexus of sympathetic.
No 8 “Give the Symptoms, Diagnosis
and Treatment of Small Pox.”
It has a period of incubation,
varying from nine to fourteen days. Usually, begins with a chill,
followed by fever, pain in the head and back, and in some cases the
peculiar distressing pain about the serobicularis
[sic, correction marks in pencil] cordis. There are increased
frequency of pulse, furred tounge [sic], and diminished secretions as in
common fevers. The urine scanty and high colored, and bowels
constipated. After a period ranging from forty eight to seventy two
hours, eruption appears, first on the face, then the breasts, and
finally all over the body. This eruption at first is only a crop of
small red pimples, but soon become developed into pustules, pitted in
the centre, mature ten or twelve days, settled down into scabs and fall
off about the seventeenth or eighteenth day. If the pustules are so
thick as to touch each other, it is called confluent small pox (variola
confluens). It is usually attended with ulceration of the mucous
membrane of the intestines. If there are failing of the pulse, dark
casts on the tounge [sic], coldness of the extremities, and the surface
of the body, as sometimes seen between the pustules, looks dusty, it
denotes the typhoid condition, and the prognosis is grave.
The diseases with which
smallpox is likely to be confounded, are scarlet fever and measles. In
small pox, however, the eruption does not appear so early in the
disease, as in scarlitina [sic, correction marks in pencil], while it
occurs earlier than in rubeola. Besides, the eruption of scarlet fever
seldom or never amounts to more than efflorescence, and that of measles
does not form pustules. Then, after the eruption makes its appearance,
twenty four hours, will, in most cases, render mistake improbable.
In most cases of distinct small
pox, the patient will recover without much treatment. Even in the
confluent form of the disease, the treatment must be much the same as
for common continued fever. We must remember that the disease will be
protracted, and the powers of the system must therefore be husbanded.
Laxatives, cathartics, diuretics, diaphoretics and anodynes, must be
used according to indications. For reasons above stated, bloodletting
is prohibited. If the pulse sinks, if the extremities grow cold, and
there are indications of failing of the powers of life, we must resort
to stimulants. An early use of the tincture of chloride of iron, will
prevent formation of abscesses, and assist convalescence. It is claimed
of late, that the infusion of Pitcher plant saracena purpura [sic,
correction marks in pencil, should be Sarracenia purpurea], given in
doses of from one to two ounces, every three or four hours, will abort
the disease. Having seen it fairly tried, I am disposed to say that I
have no faith in its efficiency.
No 9 “What are the constituents
of human milk? How does it differ from the milk of the cow?”
Water, casein, sugar,
phosphates of lime, soda and magnesia, albumin, and extractive matter.
It differs from the milk of
the cow, in having more water and sugar. I cannot say much as to the
other constituents.
Respectfully
William Commons
U.S. Naval Asylum
Philadelphia Sept 25 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, Phtisis, Gout,
Apoplexy, or chronic disease of any kind.
I am not at present
affected with varicocele, disease of the urinary organs, hernia,
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.
Respectfully
William Commons
Candidate for the office of
Assistant Surgeon in the Navy of the United States
U.S. Naval Asylum
Philadelphia Sept 24 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
