Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/420

FOLTZ 398 FOOTE Foltz, Jonathan Messersmith (1810-1877). The family of Jonathan Me?scT?mith FoUz, surgeon-general of the United States Navy, came from Prussia and settled in Lancaster in 1755. Young Foltz was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, April 25, 1810, studied medicine under Dr. William Thompson and graduated at the JelTerson Medical College in 1830 and in the following year was commissioned assis- tant naval surgeon, being promoted to the rank of surgeon in 1838. Foltz rendered dis- tinguished services during the Mexican as well as during the Civil War. In the latter, he was with Farragut on the Hartford during the years 1862 and 1863. During the bloody en- gagements on the lower Mississippi he was frequently under fire while attending to his duties, and his coolness and bravery under such conditions were conspic'uous. After the war he accompanied Farragut to Europe in 1867-8 and then served as president of the Medical Examining Board. He was appointed surgeon-general of the navy in 1871 and re- tired the following year, dying in Philadelphia, April 12, 1877. Among his writings worthy of mention arc : "Medical Statistics of the Frig- ate Potomac During Her Voyage Around the World" (1834), "The Endemic Influence of Evil Government as illustrated in the Island of Minorca" (1843), and a "Report on Scur- vy" (1846). Albert Allemann. Trans. Amer. Med. Assoc, Philadelphia. 1882, vol. xxxiii. Fonerden, John (1804-1869). Two friends, Johns Hopkins and John Fon- erden, supplemented each other. Dr. Fonerden had great admiration for the business ability of Johns Hopkins, and Johns Hopkins had like admiration for the scholarship and pro- fessional ability of John Fonerden. As a nat- ural result Fonerden became Johns Hopkins' physician, and the merchant confided to his friend, not only all his physical ailments, but whatever plans or mental perplexities he might have. And so indirectly, Fonerden, a Balti- more alienist and philanthropist, was connected with the founding of the Johns Hopkins Hos- pital and University. Baltimore was his native city and he came into it on January 22, 1804. His M. D. was from the University of Maryland in 1823. He was president of the Medico-Chirurgical So- ciety ; professor of obstetrics and diseases of women and children, Washington University, Baltimore, 1845-6, and visiting physician to the Bay View Asylum for the Insane. In 1832 he was city physician of Baltimore during the cholera epidemic, and he was co-editor of the Baltimore Colonication Journal in 1835. Fonerden's father died in 1817, when his son was but thirteen, and as he was ambitious and studious, the first thing he did was to go through his father's library and pick out books that he found interesting. Among these books were the works of Emanuel Swedenborg. The father had been one of the first converts to Swedenborgian- ism in America. In these doctrines of Swedenborg Dr. Fon- erden became greatly interested and, in fact, thenceforwards was an enthusiastic Sweden- borgian all his life. Dr. Fonerden was the superintendent of the Maryland Hospital for the Insane, from 1846 until his death. He was much troubled by the lack of room and the insufficiency of ap- paratus of every kind. The dream of his life was of a well-planned, properly erected hospi- tal for the city of Baltimore and state of Maryland. It was the frequent topic of con- versation between Johns Hopkins and him. Fonerden was also interested in universities. He was an industrious scholar and one of the early graduates of the Maryland Uni- versity, and had brought together the library of the Medical Society of Maryland, and for many years was its librarian at an insigni- ficant salary. A great lover of books and of learning, he longed to see a universitj in Maryland that was sufficient for the needs of the state. On May 6, 1869, Dr. Fonerden died in New York and Johns Hopkins was present at his funeral. Soon after the funeral Johns Hop- kins began to purchase land for a hospital, and in 1870 he made his will, giving the purchased site to his new hospital cor- poration and making the university and hos- pital corporations joint legatees for all of his undevised property. He had already made all the provision he desired to make for his rela- tives, and he inserted a clause in his will cut- ting them out, in case they interfered with its provisions, from ail participation in its benefits. Dr. Fonerden published a "Memoir of Dr. Samuel Baker" in the Baltimore Athenaeum of January 2, 1836, and a "Report" as physician of the hospital for the insane (1860). Amer. Jour, of Insanity, 1869, vol. xxvi. The Med. .Annals of Maryland. E. F. Cordell, 1903. Appleton's Cyclop. Amer. Biog., New York, 1888. vol. ii. Foote, Elial Todd (1796-1877). Elial T. Foote, physician, judge and his- torian, was born in the town of Gill, Massa-