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)
(The actual written exam photos are available, but not presented on
these pages due to the size of the files. An example 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: Josiah Howell Culver
See the
Wade and Ford surgical set owned by Josiah H. Culver, 1863
I was born in the town of Brookhaven,
county of Suffolk and state of New York on the 10th day of
September 1837.
After assuming a common school
education I spent two years and six months at Clinton Academy in
Easthampton Long Island. I there studied Latin, read Caesar and
Virgil. I began Greek and went through the Greek reader. I also
studied Algebra, Geometry, Natural + Mental Philosophy, Rhetoric,
Chemistry and Meteorology.
In the beginning of spring of 1857 I
commenced the study of medicine in Brookhaven with Dr. E. P. Jarvis.
And the autumn of the same year I entered the University of New York
Med. Dep’t. and took my first course of lectures; in the spring returned
to Brookhaven and continued for a year under the tuition of Dr. Jarvis.
In March 1859 I went to New York
again and became a pupil of Dr. P. A. Aylette. I attended the spring,
summer and autumn courses of lectures at the University and visited
Bellevue + New York hospitals daily. I spent the next winter in New
York and graduated at the University of New York in the spring of 1860.
I then went into private practice at
Huntington L. I. While in practice I compounded and put up my own
prescriptions. Last August I was examined by a medical board in New
York and was admitted as an acting assistant surgeon in the army. Since
that time I have resided in the United States General Hospital David’s
Island New York where I have been treating gun-shot wounds, typhoid
fever, diarrhœa dysentery and other diseases incident to soldiers.
I am staying at the La-Pierre house
in this city.
My address is U.S. Hospital David’s
Island New York.
Josiah H. Culver
Naval asylum Philada
March 4th 1863.
Questions by the Board:
Questions in Writing to be answered,
by Dr. Josiah H. Culver
1. What are the symptoms, cause +
treatment of Internal Hemorrhoids?
2. Describe the mode of tying the
umbilical cord.
3. Write a formula, (Latin) for
compound Cathartic pile, without symbols, or abbreviations.
4. Name four preparations of iron.
5. What is the pathology and
treatment of Arthritis?
6. Diagnosis and prognosis in
Diphtheria.
7. What are the great organs of the
circulation.
8. What is the great sympathetic
nerve.
9. What is chemistry.
Answers by Culver:
1st. The symptoms of
Internal hemorrhoids are pain and a burning sensation above the anus, a
feeling of weight or tension in the groin and testicles. During
defecation there will be an increase of the pain with tenesmus and if
the disease be of long duration the hemorrhoids will be protruded as
soft vascular tumors; there will also be hemorrhage of a bright red
color. Sometimes the hemorrhage is the first symptom. The most
frequent cause is constipated bowels, congestion of the liver or
anything which obstructs the portal circulation will produce it. A
violent attack of dysentery may cause it.
The treatment consists in
regulating the bowels by laxatives, by which a mixture of sublimed sulphur + bitartrate of potash is one of the best. Daily injections of
ice water are beneficial, also astringent injections, as solutions of
acetate of lead or sulphate of zinc. After each evacuation from the
bowels, if the tumors are protruded, they should be washed, anointed
with on ointment of powdered galls and opium, and returned into the
bowel. If these means fail to effect a cure, the hemorrhoids should be
extirpated by means of the ligature or
écraseur.
2nd. After the child has been expelled from the mother and
breathes, the cord should be examined to ascertain if it may contain any
portion of the bowel. It should then be tied tightly at the distance of
three or four inches from the abdomen with a piece of tape or other cord
with a double reef knot. The cord is then divided on the distal side of
the ligature.
3rd. Recipe
Hydrargini
Submuriatis grana decem
Pulveris Rhei
grana quindecem
Extracti Nucis
Vomicur granum anum
Misce, fiat in pillulis sex.
4th. Tinctura Ferri muriatis
Ferri Sulphus
Syrupus Ferri Iodidi
Ferri Sesquicarbonas
5th. Arthritis is on inflammation covering the cartilages of
incrustation and lining of the cavities of joints; this inflammation may
extend to the fibrous tissue surrounding the joint. The results of the
inflammation is an effusion of serum within the cavity of the joint.
Plastic material is seldom effused into a joint. If the disease be not
checked suppuration may follow, together with ulceration of the
cartilages of incrustation and caries of the extremities of the bones.
Arthritis should be treated by
keeping the affected part at perfect rest in an elevated position. A
saline cathartic should be given an [sic] the patient put upon low
diet. Leeches must be applied to the joint followed by evaporating
lotions or warm fomentations as may agree best with the patient. After
the acute symptoms have subsided, a succession of blisters may be
applied to the joint and then it may be painted over with Tincture of
Iodine. Iodide of potassium with Syrup of sarsaparilla may be
administered internally.
6th. The principle diagnostic symptom in Diphtheria is the
diptheritic exudation which forms on the tonsils and posterior surface
of the fauces. This exudation is of a dirty grayish color. It is soon
cast off and the mucous membrane is seen dark and bleeding. The
exudation is soon renewed however to be again thrown off, and this
process is frequently repeated. Meanwhile the diptheric deposit
spreads. It extends down the larynx to trachea into the lungs; through
the oesophagus into the stomach and bowels, and upward into the nasal
cavities. I have seen it on the conjunctiva in cases where I believe
every mucous membrane in the body was affected by it. The discharge
from the nose and the mouth have a gangrenous odor. The pulse is very
frequent and feeble, and there are the general symptoms of blood
poisoning.
The prognosis is very grave unless the disease be seen by the physician
in the very beginning and in some epidemics of the disease, many of the
cases will die under any treatment.
7th. The heart, systemic
arteries, capillaries and veins, and the pulmonary arteries, capillaries
and veins.
8th. The great sympathetic nerve is a chain of ganglia,
composed of gray, granular, nervous material, situated upon the vertical
column. These ganglia are connected with each other, and with the
cranial and spinal nerves by filaments of white medullary matter. They
give branches to all that great nervous plexuses.
9th. Chemistry is the
science which treats of the relations which the ultimate atoms of matter
bear to each other, and of the laws which govern them.
(Signed)
Josiah H. Culver.
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 any
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.
All my organs of sense are
without imperfection.
Josiah Howell Culver, Candidate
for the office of Assistant Surgeon in the navy of the United States
U.S. Naval Asylum
Philada
March 3rd
,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
