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: Peter Paul Gilmartin, M.D.
Surgeon’s
Office,
Naval Yard, Charlestown,
June 9th/63.
Dr. Rouschenberger, U.S.N.
Sir,
In observance of your rule in the
examination of Medical Officers, I chronicle the day of my birth as the
twenty ninth (29) of June, in the year of grace eighteen-hundred +
thirty-nine (1839). And the event took place in the city of Boston,
Mass. My days were spent in Boston up to my fourteenth year, in pursuit
of the ordinary branches of Education, and in the endeavor to engraft
some notions of the liberal arts on my slender tree of knowledge.
At fourteen years, I was sent to
College, and the University at Quebec, in Lower Canada, was selected as
my Alma Mater. I spent two years there, and then migrated to an English
College, near Baltimore, Maryland, where I studied four or five years.
After completing my course of Studies in the arts, in Maryland, I turn
my thoughts to Science, and chose Medicine as one well calculated to
satisfy desire for close study and observation. Nor was I unmindful of
the object so noble a profession had [?] in view – But ad rem.
My studies in medicine commenced in
Canada, once more; but this time in Upper Canada, the so called English
Province. I attended the lectures on Medicine at Queen’s College,
Kingston, – remained there nearly seven months return to Boston, and
placed myself under guidance of Dr. John Ryan, of Boston, a gentlemen
long my friend and preceptor. I took advantage of the Harvard Medical
School’s lectures this last year in continued attendance at the School
up to this date. If time serves, I shall present my name for graduation
at the coming Commencement, and shall then bred [?] myself a medicus de
fine, according to Medical Jurisprudence. The story of my life is
ended, and I have only to add that I am, Sir,
With great respect,
Your obed’t servant,
P. P. Gilmartin
Questions by the Board:
Dr. Peter P. Gilmartin is requested
to write answers to the following questions? [sic]
1. Through what
channels are effete materials removed from the system?
2. What is the
composition, therapeutic uses and doses of tartar emetic?
3. What are the
officinal preparations of ipecauanha?
4. What are the
diagnostic symptoms of dysentery?
5. What is the
origin course and distribution of the femoral artery?
6. Define the term
“temperature”, “latent heat”, and “specific gravity?”
Answers by Gilmartin:
1. It is not a bold idea, I think,
and may not be original, but I look upon the whole system of man as so
much course substance that will absorb material and allow it to transude
as readily as it absorbs. The skin, that to the naked eye looks
impervious is almost as important an emunctory as the kidneys or
intestinal canal. The lungs, also, perform their function of “removing
effete material”, – and though a suppression of healthy action in the
kidneys or intestines would unquestionably be fatal, if we compare the
rapidity of progress towards a fatal result, we shall find the
suppression of action in the lungs attended with the greatest immediate
danger. To be categorical in my answer, I must say the proper action
through the skin is all important. By it, we know unhealthy matters are
eliminated, both liquid, gaseous, and it is for that reason we appeal to
the skin to perform its duties in disease.
The kidneys, we know, are of vital
importance; witness the ill-effects – nephritis, albuminemia, etc. The
intestines need scarcely be [unclear] to, in connection with the
subject, since the thousand and one diseases they are subject to, are
merely a result of imperfect action in “removing effete material”.
2. Tarter emetic is chemically
tartrate of antimony and potash, a double salt, as it is said. It ranks
in therapeutics among the emetics, and sedatives, indirectly, through
the circulation. In an over dose, it is fearfully irritant, induced a
fatal inflammation of stomach.
Is is one the most [sic] useful
remedies in the whole catalogue of medicines. It is one the most [sic]
efficient remedies in inflammatory diseases – that is its special
province.
It is then used externally, in
combination with other remedies, but its internal application is the
universal one. As a sedative, it may be given in doses of ¼ gr.
repeated at intervals. It is very happily combined in its internal use
with other remedies. As an emetic, its ordinary doses 1 gr., up to 2 or
3 grs., hardly more.
3. Ipecacuanha may be used in
powder, syrup, and wine. There may be a tincture, but the wine or syrup
is altogether used. It enters into composition with the well-known
cough mixtures. Of the wine, I should give
℥ss.
4. Dysentery is a disease of lower
intestines, and as such we should find as a diagnostic symptom pain over
the track of the colon. But the first + best diagnostic is the
character of the discharges. Since dysentery has its complications; of
necessity, the discharges will be as effect to cause. Where the biliary
secretions are disordered, they will communicate their peculiarities the
the [sic] discharges of dysentery which are in their nature bloody,
mixed with mucus. Dysentery is an inflammation, in contradistinction to
Diarrhoea, which is mere irritation. Of course, tenesmus, griping, etc,
are common to both.
5. The femoral artery is the
terminal, – rather the continuation of the external iliac. It takes
origin at about Poupart’s ligament, comes over the bony wall of the
ileum, traces its course along the inner side of the Sartorius muscle,
down the inner side of the thigh to the Adductor Magnus, which it
pierces, and comes out in the popliteal space to divide into the
terminal branches, the anterior + posterior tibial arteries.
6. By “latent heat” is meant,
literally, heat hidden. The most apt example I can first mention of, is
that of ice, which will absorb a certain amount of heat and retain it.
By temperature, to my mind, is understood, the warmth of our own bodies
compared with external air, or another body.
By specific gravity, is meant the
relative weight of bodies in comparison with that of water as a
standard, which is arbitrarily fixed at 1000.
Respectfully Submitted
by
P. P. Gilmartin
