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
Neilson, M.D.
Navy Yard
Charlestown, Mass. June 30/63
To W. W. Ruschenberger.
Surgeon, U.S. Navy
Sir:
In answer to your request for a brief
account of my birth and education, I would state that I was born in
Halifax, Nova Scotia, on the fourth day of February 1840 consequently in
less than a week I will be twenty-three years of age.
With regard to my education, when it
commenced I can hardly say for I was sent to a primary school when quite
young. After taking the first steps in learning at this school I was
sent to the Acadian school in Halifax, under a Mr. Seldon as Principal,
my parents not being able to send me to college, endeavored to give me a
substantial education useful rather than ornamental.
When about sixteen years old my
father who had been in the U.S. some years, sent for his family, he
having purchased a dry store in connection with his practice as a
Physician, wished me to enter as clerk in the hope of some day becoming
the proprietor. I rapidly acquired sufficient knowledge of the business
to take a whole charge when necessary. Trade falling off in Manchester,
N.H. I went to Boston to seek employment While at the store of Mr.
Howe, So. Boston I made the acquaintance of Dr. York and commenced the
study of medicine under his direction, in a certificate I forwarded to
the Department, he speaks very favorably of the progress I made during
the two years I spent with him.
When this rebellion broke out I like
many others, caught the war fever, and preferring the Navy went a cruise
as Surgeons Steward with Dr. Smith in the Young Rover, I employed my
spare time in study, and recited to him. Since I returned I have been
studying with my father, Dr. Wm. Neilson, who is now located in Salem,
Mass.
If I have omitted anything of
importance, I will be happy to rectify it.
Very respectfully,
Your Obdt Servant,
William Nielsen, Jr.
Questions by the Board:
Dr. William Nielsen, jr. is requested
to write answers to the following questions.
1. What is chemical
affinity?
2. Name the officinal
preparations of opium with the dose and therapeutic use for each? [sic]
3. What is chyle, and
how was it formed?
4. What are the signs
and symptoms of pneumonia?
5. What is the origin,
course and distribution of the left carotid artery?
6. Define the terms
“specific gravity”, “latent heat” and “temperature”? [sic]
Answers by Neilson:
1. The preference which certain
bodies manifest for each other, combining sometimes in fixed
proportions, in others according to the circumstance they are placed in,
for instance, the fixed properties of nitrogen and oxygen in atmospheric
air, are four to one They have the chemical affinity to combine in
those proportions.
2. a Opium in powder, dose, 1
grain used to allay pain in various diseases, and also as an astringent
in diarrhoea and dysentery, in combination with mercury to prevent its
passing off too freely by the bowels _ also to procure sleep
b Tr. Opii (Laudanum) dose,
25 drops – used for the same purpose as the above when a liquid form is
preferred, externally as a ligament in neuralgia, sprains, etc.
c. Tr. Opii camphorate,
(Paregoric) dose ʓss to ij, used in diarrhoea; as in addition to cough
d Acetum Opii (Black Drop)
Dose, gtt xx. not used,
e. The various preparations of
Morphia of which the Sulphate is most used, 1/16 to 1/4 gr. as a
narcotic; in cough mixtures; with calomel in dysentery; in delirium
tremens to procure sleep, dose usually has to be increased, the range of
this valuable remedy is very wide.
3. Chyle is a nutritious milky
substance, separated from the food by the lactic and other glands in the
small intestines, after the food has been digested by the aid of gastric
juice and pancreatic juice, from the receptaculum chyli, it is carried
by the thoracic duct and mix with blood in the subclavian vein, thence
to the right side of the heart.
4. Where pneumonia runs its full
course, it has three stages, 1 Congestion 2. Inflamation [sic], 3.
Suppuration _
1 Commences with chill, then febrile
reaction, pain in side or chest, dull or more or less acute, severe
sharp pain indicates its being complicated with Pleuritis, Respiration
difficult much hurried sometimes from 30 to 60 a minute cough at first
dry, soon with the characteristic reddish yellow or rusty sputa, so
pathognomonic of this disease
Ph. Signs. Auscultation reveals
the crepitant rale, palpation a little dullness,
2 stge – increase of difficulty a
breathing and the other symptoms –
Ph. Signs. absence of crepitant
rale and natural respiratory murmur Bronchial respiration, bronchophony
–
Ph. Signs do not reveal the
transition from the 2nd to the third stage in the last to
sputa is purulent.
5. The left carotid artery arises
from the left portion of the arch of the Aorta, continuing nearly
straight up it runs parallel with the internal border of the sterno-mastoid
muscle terminating in the external and internal carotid arteries the
former supplying the face and scalp the latter the brain and membranes
6. Specific gravity is the relative
weight of any substance in comparison with, [sic] e.g. the sp.
gravity of urine is 1019 water being 1000 –
Latent heat is that heat which exists
in certain substances, not perceptible to the sense until evolve by
chemical means or the addition of a third body –
Temperature is the actual degree of
heat of any substance as shown by the thermometer– At the temperature of
39°F water is in its smallest bulk, either way from this it expands.
William Nielsen, Jr.
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
