760 DR. CHARLES FOLLEN FOLSOM. 



Dr. Folsom's part and a visit by Dr. Clouston to America. Several of 

 Dr. Folsom's patients spent some time at the pleasant institution of 

 Morningside, under Dr. Clouston's care. 



It was within a year after the publication of this paper that Dr. Fol- 

 som was offered and declined the superintendency of Danvers Hos- 

 pital, as above described. 



The work of the State Board of Health, extensive as it was, did not 

 prevent him, at this period, from giving a certain amount of time to 

 private practice, especially among the insane, nor from lecturing at 

 the Harvard Medical School. His connection with this school began 

 in 1877 and continued until 1888. He served first as lecturer on hy- 

 giene, then gave instruction in both hygiene and mental diseases, and 

 finally became assistant professor of Mental Diseases. His resignation 

 was prompted partly by the lack of proper clinical facilities for teach- 

 ing, partly by the fact that he had finally decided to withdraw from the 

 exclusive study of diseases of the mind and to devote himself to the 

 work of a general practitioner and consultant. But this is to anticipate, 

 as we still have several interesting years of public work to chronicle. 



I have sketched the principal features of his labors as secretary of 

 the State Board of Health as far as 1879. In that year two events of 

 importance for him occurred, namely, the appointment of the Yellow 

 Fever Commission, of which he was made a member, and the sub- 

 merging of the Board of Health in the combined Board of Health, 

 Lunacy, and Charity, of which he was appointed secretary and of which 

 he was made a member in the following year. 



The yellow fever epidemic of 1879-1880 ravaged several of the South- 

 ern States, especially those bordering on the Mississippi River, and the 

 National Advisory Commission was appointed to inspect the infected 

 districts and consult with local authorities and officers of public health. 

 As a member of this commission Dr. Folsom visited a number of South- 

 ern cities, especially Memphis and New Orleans, and left behind him a 

 pleasant impression of tact, judgment, and good breeding, of which 

 Dr. H. P. Walcott, Dr. Folsom's successor on the Board of Health, 

 still found traces on the occasion of a visit, many years later, to the 

 same localities. The most important result of the trip for Dr. Folsom 

 himself was, however, that it brought him into close contact with Dr. 

 John S. Billings, and laid the basis for one of those enduring friend- 

 ships in which he was so rich.* This same outbreak of yellow fever 



* In a recent letter Dr. Billings writes: "From my first acquaintance 

 with him I had the greatest respect for his judgment, and the frank honesty 

 of the way he gave it, and as we became intimately associated the friendship 

 grew into a warm affection which continued to the end. He was a model 



