Page:A cyclopedia of American medical biography vol. 1.djvu/235

 BUDD

BULKELEY

cases. A colored woman, now aged seventy-five, told the writer that Dr. Budd opened the right side of her abdo- men in 1SS0 and evacuated a large quantity of foul-smelling pus. He did this without any anesthetic, first cutting through the skin, then introducing a needle and finally inserting his hand.

His management of hysterical patients was the talk of the state during his active life and even now is referred to. His work in the field was sui generis. He knew how to control hysterics. He snatched off the night cap of one; built a fire under the bed of another; he prepared to get into the bed of a woman who had not been out of it for two years but who took to flight and was cured by this treatment; and still another was tied in a road cart, while the horse was lashed to a run of a mile or more — she was relieved of her "nervousness."

In 1881 Dr. Budd removed to Lock- ville, a small settlement in the same county. Both here and at Egypt he had rooms in his house at the disposal of patients. They were frequently brought on stretchers from distant neighborhoods and were sometimes on the road for two or three days. He was exceedingly kind to the poor, on more than one occasion having taken the coat off his back and given it away.

Dr. Budd was a large man, six feet tall, eccentric in dress and, though very clean in his attire, practically never wore a collar. He was known as an original and independent character.

He married Anna C. Bryan in 1S75 and had four children.

Dr. Budd died in 1891. Six months before his death he went to Philadelphia to consult Dr. John II. Packard ( In i mate) and Dr. Williaml'eppcr. II is friends in that city told him of the property formerly owned there by (he Budd family, that just a few inches of earth sold off the top would have meant millions, and that, if he had remained then:, it might all have been his. To this lie replied: "Why, I would rather have fresh air, elbow room and i I water

than all your millions. I can't stand the Schuylkill." H. A. R.

Personal interview with Mrs. A. V. Budd. Letters and papers of Dr. P. E. Hines, Mr. PI. It. Home and others.

A portrait in oils is in the possession of his niece, Mrs. W. B. Williams of Wilmington, N. C.

Bulkeley, Gershom (1635 (?) -1713).

A clerical physician of note, who had a large consulting practice in all parts of Connecticut. He was born in Concord, Massachusetts about the year 1635, his father being the celebrated divine, Rev. Peter Bulkeley, driven from England on account of his non-conformity and who settled in Concord, Massachusetts.

Reared in the best of family surround- ings, Gershom graduated from Harvard College in 1655 and shortly after studied for the ministry. It is unknown from whom he received his medical instruction. His first charge was in New London, but after four years there he gave it up because of his opposition to the half-way covenant, and subsequently, on June 1, 1666, received a call to the church in Wethersfield, where he labored for eleven years, resigning early in 1677, probably by reason of weakness of his voice. The rest of his life was devoted entirely to medicine, in the town of Glastonbury.

During King Phillip's War he rendered important services as surgeon and was wounded in the thigh in one of the expeditions. For this service he was well compensated, and also received the "hearty thanks" from the Colony's Council of War for his "good services to the country during this present war."

His account books which remain bear evidence of his extensive practice, al- though he does not appear to have been licensed until 16S6. A mass of manu- scripts also survive giving many of the remedies he employed. These are now in the possession of the Hartford Medical Society.

He was well versed in chemistry, alchemy and was "master of several languages. Some of his political pam- phlets have been handed down to us.