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
