Page:A cyclopedia of American medical biography vol. 1.djvu/431

 FOLSOM

FONERDEN

as visiting physician to the Boston City Hospital, and as consulting physi- cian to the Adams Nervine Asylum in Jamaica Plain. In addition, how- ever, to these exacting duties and a large practice, he found time to devote to the study of hygiene. In October, 1873, he went abroad and on his re- turn in August of the following year was appointed secretary of the Mass- achusetts State Board of Health.

He was in Europe again in 1875 to investigate and report on the sewer- age and sewage disposal of various foreign cities, and later, as one of a commission, recommended a plan for the sewerage of Boston which was after- wards adopted in all its essential fea- tures. In 1878 he studied experi- mental hygiene in Munich, and a year later was appointed by the National Board of Health as one of three ex- perts to accompany a committee of that board to report on the sanitary condition of Memphis, and the means to prevent a recurrence of yellow fe- ver. The recommendations of this com- mittee were adopted. Not long after he was appointed by Pres. Hayes a member of the National Board of Health.

Dr. Folsom's interest in Harvard University, especially in Harvard Col- lege and the Medical School, was great. He was lecturer on hygiene in the Medical School from 1877 to 1879, lecturer on mental diseases from 1879 to 1882, and assistant professor from 1882 to 1885. He was president of the Harvard Medical Alumni Association, fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, honorary member of the Association of American Physi- cians, and also of a large number of med- ical societies.

Dr. Folsom died in the Roosevelt Hospital, New York, August 20, 1907. In February, 190S, the " University Gazette" announced that the corpora- tion had established in the Medical School a teaching fellowship in hygiene or in mental and nervous diseases in

memory of the late Charles Follen Fol- som, A. B., 1862, M. D. 1870, overseer 1891-1903. W. L. B.

Bos. Med. and Surg. Jour., Aug. 29, 1907,

vol. clvii.

Harvard Bulletin of March 4, 1908.

Foltz, Jonathan Messersmith (1810- 1877). The family of Jonathan Messersmith Foltz, surgeon-general of the United States Army, came from Prussia and settled in Lancaster in 1755. Young Foltz studied medicine under Dr. William Thompson and graduated at the Jefferson Medical College in 1830 and in the fol- lowing year was commissioned assist- ant naval surgeon, and was promoted to the rank of surgeon in 1838. Foltz rendered distinguished services during the Mexican as well as during the Civil War, for in 1862 and 1863 he was with Faragut on the Hartford. During the bloody engagements on the lower Mississippi he was frequently under fire while attending to his duties, and his coolness and bravery under such conditions were conspicuous. After the war he served as president of the Medical Examining Board. He was ap- pointed surgeon-general of the navy in 1871 and retired the following year, dying in Philadelphia, 1S77. Among his writings worthy of mention are: " Medical Statistics of the Frigate Poto- mac During Her Voyage Around the World" (1834), "The Endemic Influence of Evil Government as Illustrated in the Island of Minorca " (1843), and a " Report on Scurvy" (1846). A. A.

Tr. Am. M. Ass., Phila., 1S82. xxxiii.

Fonerden, John (1804-1869).

Two friends, Johns Hopkins and John Fonerden, supplemented each other. Dr. Fonerden had great admi- ration for the business ability of Johns Hopkins, and Johns Hopkins had like admiration for the scholarship of John Fonerden. As a natural result Fon- erden became Johns Hopkins' physi- cian, and the merchant confided to his