Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/419

NAME FOLSOM 397 FOLSOM for his conservatism. In teaching, his style was quiet, eminently and purely didactic. His lectures derived their oramcnt from correct rhetoric and classical illustrations. He died at Louisville, March 19, 1864. His writings included : Sketches of military surgery: "An introductory discourse delivered to the Kentucky School of Medicine," Louis- ville, 1852; "A discourse delivered to the class of the Kentucky School of Medicine, intro- ductory to a course of surgery," Louisville, 18S2; "A lecture, introductory to the course of surgical instruction in the Kentucky School of Medicine," 1854; "A discourse introductory to a course of clinical surgery," Louisville, 1856. August Schachnee. Presidential Address (Lewis Rogers), Trans. Ken- tucliy State Med. Soc, 1873, vol. xlvii. FoUom, Charles Follen (1842-1907). Charles Follen Folsora was the son of Na- thaniel Smith Folsom, a clergyman, and was born in Haverhill, Massachusetts, April 3, 1842. His life was particularly rich in experience. After graduation from college in June, 1862. he went to South Carolina, where he spent three years in raising cotton and serving on various Federal commissions to supervise plan- tations and care for the "freedmen and abandoned lands." In his work he was brought closely in contact with the late Gen. Rufus Saxton. Having contracted malarial fever in this arduous service. Dr. Folsom took a sail- ing voyage in October, 1865, around Cape Horn to San Francisco and returned as a sailor before the mast. He then studied medi- cine at the Harvard Medical School, also under Dr. Jeffries Wyman (q. v.), and received his medical degree in 1870. Now followed a professional career of thirty- seven years in which Folsom rendered in- valuable service as a physician at the McLean Insane Hospital, as visiting physician to the Boston City Hospital, and as consulting physi- cian to the Adams Nervine Asylum in Jamaica Plain. In addition, however, to these ex- acting 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 ap- pointed secretary of the Massachusetts State Board of Health. As a part of the report of the board of health he published "Diseases of the Mind," later used as a text-book. He was in Europe again in 1875 to investi- gate and report on the sewage disposal of various foreign cities, and later, as one of a commission, recommended a plan for the sew- erage of Boston, which was afterwards adopted in all its essential features. In 1878 he studied experimental hygiene in Munich, and a year later was appointed by the National Board of Health as one of three experts to accompany a committee of that board to re- port on the sanitary condition of Memphis, and the means to prevent a recurrence of yel- low fever. The recommendations of this com- mittee were adopted. Not long after he was appointed by President Hayes a member of the National Board of Health. Dr. Folsom's interest in Harvard University especially in Harvard College and the Medical School, was great. He was lecturer on hy- giene in the Medical School from 1877 to 1879, lecturer on mental diseases from 1879 to 1882, and assistant professor from 1882 to 1885. Besides this he was an overseer of the University for twelve years. 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 Physicians, and also of a large j number of medical societies. ] He married Martha Tucker Washburn in 1886. They had no children. In personal appearance Dr. Folsom was tall and of spare build; he had light hair and blue eyes which had a way of roving about and finally fixing themselves on the person with whom he was talking, followed immediately by a brilliant smile. Sometimes the conversation revealed the cause of the smile; more often it did not and his vis-a-vis was left in wonder. He had a habit of cherishing one thought in his mind for long periods of time and it would reappear, generally in the form of a query, unexpectedly. Entertaining became a fine art to him and he was happiest when surrounded by his friends. His sick room manner was especially felicitous and he rarely finished a visit without leaving his patient stronger in mind if not in body. Dr. Folsom died in the Roosevelt Hospital, New York, Ahgust 20, 1907, of ulcerative in- fective endocarditis due to old valvular dis- ease of the heart. In February, 1908, the Uni- Vi'rsily Gacelte 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 Folsom, A. B., 1862, M. D. 1870, overseer 1891-1903. After his death in 1909, there was privately printed, "Sttdies of Crimi- nal Responsibility and Limited Responsibility," a review of six cases including those of Jesse Pomeroy, Charles J. Guiteau and Jane Toppan. Walter L. Burrage. Boston Med. and Surg. Jour., Aug. 29, 1907, vol. civil, 305. Harvard Alumni Bull., March 4. 1908.