Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/1194

NAME UPSHUR 1172 VALLfiE When in the summer of 1855, Norfolk and Portsmouth suffered the scourge of that ter- rible epidemic of yellow fever, he remained at the post of duty, striving day and night to alleviate suffering and to save life, until he himself was stricken down. He was the first physician in Norfolk to see a case of the disease, having been called to Barry's Row when it made its appearance there about the middle of July, and from that time until taken ill two months later, he was ever in the thick of the fight, calmly and indefatigably visiting the afflicted, at the same time gather- ing from every available source information concerning the pestilence, and making notes of his clinical observations for use in a paper to be written upon the epidemic. One by one he saw his exhausted professional comrades stricken down, but he still worked on, until about the middle of September, when he too was taken. He had proven himself a hero, and in the end he won the martyr's crown. His co-martyrs were, in the order in which they fell, Drs. R. W. Sylvester, T. F. Con- stable, G. I. Halson, R. J. Sylvester, F. L. Hig- gins, J. A. Briggs, Thos. Nash, R. B. Tunstall, and Henry Selden, of Norfolk, and J. W. H. Trugien, R. H. Parker, M. P. Lovett and L. P. Nicholson of Portsmouth; William Selden had the disease but recovered. "Dr. Upshur was," said the Petersburg (Va.) Express just after his death, "as true a moral hero as the world ever saw, and his course during the present epidemic has fully established our assertion ; he commenced with the fever in Barry's Row, and without even hope of reward — except that which an approv- ing conscience bestows — he battled manfully with the disease and rendered his services alike to all the suffering. He was truly one of nature's noblemen and lived for the good of others." He was an active member of the State Medi- cal Society and of the American Medical As- sociation. For several years prior to death he held the position of physician to the U. S. Marine Hospital at Norfolk, and during the yellow fever epidemic in that city in 18S5, was consulting physician to the Julappi Hospital for yellow fever patients. Upshur married in 1844 Sarah Andrews, youngest daughter of Dr. Jacob G. Parker, of Northampton Co., Va., and was survived by his wife and three children. Dr. J. N. Upshur, of Richmond, Va., Mrs. Thos. C. Walston, of Richmond, Va., and Henry L. Upshur, of Northampton Co., Va. He wrote on the use of iodide of potas- sium in the suppurative stage of pneumonia (1844-45) ; on miasmatic fever; the retention of urine following scarlet fever; on a dead ovum retained six months in utero without putrefaction, and on an operation for congeni- tal occlusion of the vagina (1853). He died September 19, 1855. R. M. Sl.ughteb. Vallee, Thomas Evariste Arthur (1848-1903) Arthur Vallee was born at St. Roch, Quebec, December 23, 1&48, and died at the Hotel-Dieu, February 23, 1903, at the age of 54. A student of Laval University in 1867, he left that in- stitution in 1873, with the degree of M.D., and was admitted to practice in 1875. After a pro- longed absence in Europe, spent in study in London and Paris, he occupied successively the chairs of medical jurisprudence, clinical medicine, obstetrics, history of medicine, and mental diseases at the Hotel-Dieu and Laval University, Quebec. As a professor, his dic- tion was clear and erudite, and up to the end of his useful life he was an honor to his school and to the French-Canadian medical profession. His public lectures were always looked forward to with pleasure by his fellow citizens. Clearness of mental vision and a ripe judgment, together with great aptitude for work, were characteristics that especially fitted him for speculative medical science, and it was in his work as an alienist that the philosophical trend of his mind found its highest expression. In November, 1879, he was appointed one of the visiting physicians to the Quebec Lunatic Asylum at Beaufort, and in 1885 became medi- cal superintendent of that institution. During his too brief regime Dr. Vallee in- troduced many valuable reforms into the hos- pital, including the total abolition of mechani- cal restraint, and various structural changes. His position as superintendent gave him the field for prosecuting his researches into ques- tions of mental and nervous diseases, and early in his career his competency was acknowl- edged. Unfailing in his loyalty, he was greatly beloved by his colleagues. He was a brilliant conversationalist, refined in temperament, a man of taste, and above all, generous to a fault. He was visiting physician to the Lying- in Hospital and to the hospitals of the Good Shepherd, the Sisters of Charity and the Hotel- Dieu. In 1878 he married Honorine Chauveau, daughter of the premier of the province of Quebec. Dr. Vallee was often called into court as an expert in insanity cases. Institutional Care of the Insane in the U. S. and Canada, Henry M. Hurd, 1917. Cyclop. Canadian Biog., Geo. Maclean Rose, Tor- onto, 1888.