Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/1054

NAME SELDEN 1032 SELDEN ter of Claudius B. Linn, of Pliiladelphia, by whom he had two daughters and one son who survived him. John W. Farlow. Phys. and Surgs. of U. S., W. B. Atkinson, 1878. Jour. Amer. Med. Asso., 1905, vol. xlv. p. 1262. Selden, William (1808-1887) Born in Norfollc, Virginia, August 15, 1808, he was the son of Dr. William B. Selden (q. v.), a noted physician of that city. He attended lectures and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1830, after which he spent two years in London and Paris, then, return- ing to this country, he settled in his native city, and soon built up a large practice. He was a member of tlie Medical Society of Virginia, of which he was twice elected vice-president. In May, 1863, he was commissioned sur- geon in the Confederate Army, and served to the end of the war in army hospitals. The rest of his professional life was spent in his native city, where he accomplished much good through his great ability and valuable coun- sel. He was one of that band of heroic phy- sicians who stood steadfast at the post of duty during the terrible epidemic of yellow fever which visited Norfolk and Portsmouth in 1855, being chairman of a committee appointed by the city council to investigate the cause and origin of the epidemic. This committee, which consisted of six physicians, submitted a full and valuable report, with the correct conclusion that the disease was introduced by the steamer Ben Franklin. This report is from his pen, and few more valu- able contributions to medical literature have been given the profession. It is said of him that his abilities were so diversified and varied that it is difficult to say in what branch of the profession he most excelled, and still harder to determine in which, if any, he was deficient. He married Lucinda Wilson, the daughter of Dr. Daniel Wilson, of Louisville, Kentucky, and died at his home in Norfolk, Virginia, November 7, 1887. An able writer, he made some very valu- able contributions to medical literature;, the titles of two are: "Report on the Origin of Yellow Fever in Norfolk in 1855." (Virginia Medical Jour- nal, vol. iv) ; "Bony Union of Fracture of the Neck of the Femur, with Report of Cases and Comments Thereon" ("Transactions of the Medical Society of Virginia," 1877). Robert M. Sl.^ughter. Trans. Med. See. of Va., 1888. Med. and Surg. Reporter, Phila., 1887, vol. Ivii. Selden, William Boswell (1773-1849) Born in 1773, he was the son of the Rev. William Selden, pastor of the Episcopal Church at Hampton, Virginia, and received a good education, afterwards studying medicine for several years under Drs. Taylor and Hansford of Norfolk, and then attending a course of lectures at the University of Penn- sylvania. After two j'ears in Edinburgh he had not received a degree for he had to return home on account of lack of funds. He then settled in Norfolk and was asso- ciated with Dr. Alexander Whitehead. In 1779 he obtained some vaccine virus from Dr. Jenner and with this proceeded to vac- cinate, and kept up a continuous supply for nearly fifty years. He declared that all this time he could see no variation in the appear- ance of the vesicle, nor any failure in its power to protect. From the beginning of his practice he used the bark in the treatment of malarial fevers without waiting for the fever to subside, and in severe cases, antici- pated the paroxysms by full doses of camphor and opium. Long before Graves wrote on the subject, he treated typhoid fever by careful nursing and proper medicines, rather than with drastic remedies. He was one of the first in this country to use calomel in the treatment of the summer diarrhea of chil- dren, trying it first in 1807 in the case of his own child. He had a large obstetrical prac- tice, and was one of the best accoucheurs of his day, and was probably the first to per- form the operation of decapitation of the fetus. This he did in the case of a woman with a shoulder presentation, who had been in labor for two days. The shoulder was forced so low in the pelvis that the neck was easily reached, and the doctor decided to sever the neck, rather than attempt to turn. This he did with a pruning knife with a eurved blade which he happened to have in his pocket. The body was then easily delivered by pulling down the arm and the head was expelled by the uterine contractions. The woman recov- ered. Dr. Selden was a scholarly man, an earnest student and a close observer. From the begin- ning of his career it was his habit to write down every morning his observations on the climate and weather, and to record briefly any noteworthy case he had seen. These rec- ords were lost during the Civil War when his son's library was plundered by the Fed- eral troops. He married, in 1802, Charlotte Colgate, of Kent, England, and several children were