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tial reasons other than professional incompetency. Again, duties 

 in the naval medical service require a practical knowledge upon 

 certain branches, not attained by many otherwise well informed in 

 their profession. For instance — medical officers on board ship are 

 often required to be their own apothecaries ; and, in foreign coun- 

 tries to select their medicines, when they must depend upon their 

 practical acquaintance with drugs to select those of good quality. 

 Deficiency in such knowledge excludes many. 



For admission into the naval service, a fair preliminary education, 

 and a knowledge of the branches strictly professional, are the nomi- 

 nal requirements, but from the amount of competition, higher attain- 

 ments are necessary to secure success. Professional acquirements 

 being equal, those persons would be selected who possessed in addi- 

 tion a knowledge of collateral sciences and of languages : relative 

 position, a matter of importance, being decided according to the 

 amount of professional and general information of the successful 

 candidates. The mode of examination is as follows: in the first 

 place the applicant is required to reply to the following 



" CIRCULAR TO CANDIDATES. 



" For the information of the Board, you will state, in your own 

 handwriting, the place of your birth, your age, the state of which 

 you are a citizen, and the names of the institutions in which your 

 general education has been acquired. If a graduate of arts, please 

 state from what college you received your diploma. Besides En- 

 glish, what languages have you studied ? If you have studied 

 natural history, please state what branches. 



" State the name of your medical preceptor, and the time devoted 

 by you to the study of medicine. If a graduate, of what institu- 

 tion ? What period of time have you devoted to practical anatomy 

 or dissection ? "What opportunities have you had to witness the 

 practice of medicine and surgery ? What opportunity, if any, have 

 you had to become acquainted with pharmacy and the physical pro- 

 perties of drugs ? 



" You will state, on your honour, whether you are obnoxious to 

 any hereditary disease whatever ; especially, whether any of your 

 immediate family has suffered from pulmonary disease, epilepsy, 

 insanity or paralysis : and you will also state whether your general 

 health is good, and whether you are free from constitutional disease 



