Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/427

NAME FOSTER 405 FOSTER New Haven, studied medicine at the Yale Medical School, was graduated M. D., in 1875 and at once began the practice of his profession. In 1877 he was appointed instructor in anatomy as applied to art, in the school of fine arts in Yale University, a position he held, with great satisfaction to his pupils, until his death. The early part of his professional career was largely among the students of the university ; the necessity of some kind of a hospital for them so impressed itself upon liim that he advocated in the most strenuous way such an addition to the University equipment. The present Yale Home and Infirmary is the re- sult of his influence upon the friends of the college and upon the administration of Presi- dent Dwight. It was a disappointment to him that its usefulness was so restricted by the un- reasoning fears of some persons in the vicinity which prevented the admission to it of the milder forms of contagious diseases among students, who are still compelled to expose to infection their comrades in the college dormitories. In 1879 he was appointed post surgeon to the United States Marine Hospital Service, holding the position until his death. Early in his professional career, Dr. Fos- ter became intensely interested in the study of tuberculosis ; he was the first physician in this country to use Koch's tuberculin, employ- ing it in a case of pulmonary tuberculosis on December 3, 1890, having obtained the lymph through Professor Chittenden, of (he Shef- field Scientific School, some time before any- one else had it in this country. His mind, how- ever, was of too broad a cast ever to allow him to become a mere specialist lor private practice : the large scope of the tuberculosis question impressed itself overwhelmingly upon him. He was one of the founders of the Na- tional Association for the Study and Pre- vention of Tuberculosis, was director and a member of the executive committee and contributed a paper to the first meeting in 1905. His interest in the Association con- tinued unabated until his death. He was also interested in the International Congress of Tuberculosis, was a vice-president of the Sixth Congress in the second Section on Sanatoria. Hospitals and Dispensaries. The piece of work that interested Dr. Fos- ter the most in his professional career and with which he was peculiarly identified, was the Gaylord Farm Sanatorium, near Walling- ford in New Haven Count>-, and the success of this was a matter of the greatest pride and gratification to him. The sanatorium opened in September, 1904, and was exclu- sively for persons in the early stages of pul- monary tuberculosis, of very moderate means and residents of the State. In common with all others engaged in the prevention of the spread of tuberculosis, Dr. Foster appreciated that the State must take part in the struggle and he instituted meas- ures to bring the matter to the attention of the General Assembly and urge early action. Accordingly a commission was appointed, of which he was chairman, with the result that in 1909 a permanent commission was created, empowered to purchase sites, erect suitable buildings, appoint administrative and medical officers in three counties of the State, to be extended to others as the necessities de- manded. Dr. Foster threw himself into the work with all his energies. He knew he was overtaxing himself, but the work was before him and he could not rest. Never of a strong const'tutioii, be had a sharp attack of pneumonia in 1898; with the relics of a former active tuberculosis in his system, the physical strain, the constant com- bating of political antagonisms where he had anticipated support, the care of private pa- tients, who depended upon him and vi'ho would not be denied, all contributed to use up his powers of resistance, so that when in March, 1910, what at first was a comparatively limited lobar pneumonia rapidly extended to involve both lungs ; a myocarditis developed to which be succumbed, as distinct a sacrifice to public duty as a soldier on a field of battle. William H. Carmalt. Proc. Conn. St. Med. Soc, 1910, 316-320. Foster, Thomas Albert (1827-1896). The fifteenth child of a family of twenty- one, the son of Thomas Dresser and Joanna Carter Foster, Thomas was born in Montville, Maine, February 20, 1827. His mother was left a widow when he was about eight, but when twelve Thomas was able to add to her small income by his labor. He had an ordinary education and taught school for several years, and it was not until he was twenty-six that lie began to study medicine with Dr. Nathan Rogers Boutelle, of Waterville. While a student in 1855, he showed his steadiness of purpose by attending fearlessly a large num- ber of cases of cholera at Waterville and Bangor (of which fifteen died), and he was a temporary victim himself of a mild attack, but was saved by powerful sedatives. Grad-