DR. CHARLES FOLLEN FOLSOM. 767 



certainly he once said that he knew he was approaching his end and 

 that " the clock had struck twelve;" but this may be taken rather as a 

 temperamental note of acquiescence than as a conclusion based on 

 evidence. He died at last quietly and without pain. 



The examination showed that he had been suffering from an ulcera- 

 tive, infective endocarditis, with embolisms, to which it was thought 

 his old valvular heart-disease had rendered him susceptible. 



It would be easy to multiply testimonials to the character and abil- 

 ity of Dr. Folsom from the words — spoken, written, or printed — of 

 his colleagues and his friends. Perhaps, however, the most fitting 

 close to this brief sketch is given in the final paragraphs of a private 

 letter from Mr. Gannett, who was the oldest and probably the closest 

 of Dr. Folsom's friends. After referring to the fact that at each new 

 meeting following a long interval of separation he found him always 

 "hard at work, the same loyal friend, simple, modest, gentle, high- 

 minded, lovable . . . yet growing in power and in service, . . ." Mr. 

 Gannett goes on to say, "It is strange how well one can know a man's 

 self while knowing so little of his works and days. The reason, no 

 doubt, lies in the same loyalty, — he was loyal to himself ; through 

 his growth and success he remained the same man I knew in our 

 youth. I was always grateful for his holding on to me, and counted 

 it an honor. And it seems so easy to hold on to him now for the same 

 reason, — now when his greeting no longer waits me in Boston. I 

 happened yesterday to be looking up something about George William 

 Curtis, and came across what Mr. Roosevelt — not yet even Gov- 

 ernor — - said of him at some club in New York City, not long after 

 his death. He spoke of the serene purity and goodness of character 

 which impressed every one who came in contact with Curtis, — and 

 then said, 'I have used the adjective serene, it is a beautiful adjective, 

 and it is the only adjective I know of which is sufficiently beautiful to 

 describe his beautiful character.' I think of Folsom in that way, — 

 the adjective and the noun, and the whole expression apply well 

 to him." 



A testimonial of another form deserves especial mention. A large 

 number, nearly seventy, of his friends and patients, "who wished in 

 this way to express their grateful appreciation of Dr. Folsom's unfail- 

 ing care and skill as a physician, and their admiration for him as a 

 man " (Harvard Bulletin, March 4, 1908), presented Harvard Univer- 

 sity with a fund of ten thousand dollars for the establishment in the 

 Harvard Medical School of "The Charles Follen Folsom Teaching 

 Fellowship," in Hygiene or in Mental and Nervous Diseases. The 

 issue of the Bulletin in which this gift was announced contains also an 



