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: W. James Bruce, M.D.
Boston Navy Yard.
April 4, 1863.
Sir:
It descending myself to you
for examination as to my qualifications necessary to fill a Physician of
an Acting Assistant Surgeon in the Navy of the United States, I would
state, in compliance with the regulations, that I was born on the 18th
day of April, in the year One thousand eight hundred + thirty two, in
the city of Covington, + state of Kentucky. What literary attainments I
Have retained in the English Dept of Miammi [sic] University, Oxford,
Ohio. I read medicine three years + six months in the Office of Dr. W.
C. Graves – a graduate of Virginia University. I commenced taking
lectures in St. Louis which were altogether Anatomical, under Prof.
McDowel. In the following winter, (1855,) I received a course of
lectures at the Louisville (Ky) institute the following winter I
graduated at the Medical College of Lexington, Ky. I in the practice
the following spring + summer, in the city of New Port, Ky. The
following winter I attended the Commercial Hospital, in Cincinnati, then
under the charge of Prof. Blackman. I then removed (having married the
Yankee live) to the city of New Bedford, Mass. Since the removal, which
took place in 1859, I practiced in New Bedford, up to Jan. 1862, when,
by the recommendation of Surgeon General Dale, I receive an appointment
from the Navy Department has Act. Ast. Surgeon, + entered immediately
upon the duties of my office, on board the U.S.S. Vuruna.
Very respectfully,
Your ob’t serv’t
W.
James Bruce
Present post office address,
Middletown Ct. [in a different hand]
Questions of the Board:
Acting assistant surgeon W. G. Bruce
is requested to write answers to the following
questions.
1. What glands and glandular organs
constitute the apparatus of digestion?
2. Through what channels is effete
materiel conveyed out of the organism?
3. Name the officinal preparations
of opium and the average dose of each?
4. What are the diagnostic symptoms
of flatulent colic?
5. By what vessels is blood conveyed
to the liver?
6. What changes are produced in
atmospheric air by respiration?
Answers by Bruce
1. The Maxilary [sic] glands, the
various glands of the stomach, + the hepatic organs + glands.
2. The Duodenum, Jejunum, Ileum,
Ceocum [sic], that Colons, + the rectum, if I understand your
question.
3. Morphii Sulphati, Syr. Papav.
Sommif., Opii Tint., Elix., Opii
Pillulae Comp.
4. Pain, + tension of bowels,
Eructations, Desire without its ability to evacuate the bowels,
Discharges of wind.
5. The hepatic artery + its branches
6. Its oxygen is taken up by the
blood in its passage, through the Capillaries, from the pulmonary
arteries, to the pulmonary veins, when it is expelled from the lungs,
changed into Carbonic Acid gas.
Remarks:-
I’ve not been able to look into a
book, since the sinking of the late U.S.S. Varuna, + confess to a good
degree of rustiness.
W. James Bruce.
Boston Navy Yard,
April 4 1863
