Page:A cyclopedia of American medical biography vol. 1.djvu/225

 BROWN

BROWN-SEQUARD

was Abolished while the Power of Motion remained Unimpaired." In 1797, two years prior to Yandell's date, Brown wrote "An Inaugural Dissertation on the Bilious Malignant Fever," Manning and Loving, Boston. He was an in- dustrious writer but composed no elab- orate papers and his letters to scien- tific men, which were very numerous, were more interesting than his medical papers. On the authority of Micheaux in Rank's "History of Lexington," he is credited with being the first American physician to practise vaccination. This, it is stated, was carried on before the first experiments with it were made in New York or Philadelphia. It is said that up to 1S02 he had vaccinated many persons. In the interest of his- tory, we feel it proper to add that ac- cording to Joseph M. Toner, M. D., "Contributions to the Annals of Med- ical Progress and Education in the United States before and during the War of Independence," that vaccination was introduced into South Carolina in February, 1S02, by Dr. David Ramsay.

The crowning effort of his life was the organization of a society with branches in other cities, whose members pledged themselves to ideals similar to those of Dr. Brown, a society styled "The Kappa Lambda Association of Hip- pocrates." Its members were elected by unanimous vote and on the exaction of a promise similar to that of the Hippocratic oath. A journal was put forth in 1825 in Philadelphia under the auspices of this association, under the name of the " North American Medical and Surgical Journal."

He was active in the organization of societies for the discussion of questions of science and literature, and probably the first to make known to his countrymen the discovery of the art of lithography in Europe, and the first to suggest a process for clarifying ginseng, rendering it fit for the Chinese market. He also made some valuable suggestions about the distilla- tion of spirits.

1 1 1 contribution to " The Transactions

of the American Philosophical Society" consisted of a paper under the title of "A Description of a Cave on Crooked Creek, with Observations on Nitre and Gunpow- der." His death was caused by apoplexy in the third attack of which he died on the twelfth of January, 1S30. in the sixty- second year of his age. He died at the residence of Col. Thomas G. Percy, near Huntsville, Alabama. A. S.

His best portrait is by Jouett at Frankfort, Ky.

Samuel Brown, by Dr. R. LaRocbe. " Lives of Eminent American Physicians and Sur- geons of the Nineteenth Century," Samuel D. Gross.

Filson Club Publication No. 20, Medical Lit- erature of Ky., by L. P. Yandell, Sr. Transactions of the Ky. State Medical So- ciety, 1874.

Brown-Sequard, Charles Edward (1S17- 1S94).

This great and original "savant," cosmopolite physiologist and physician who taught in England, America and France, Charles Edward Brown-S£quard was born at Port Louis, Mauritius April 8, 1817, the posthumous son of Edward Brown (a Philadelphian), captain in the merchant service. His mother's family, the S£quards, had been for some years settled in the Isle of France and as his father was Irish the lad inherited a large amount of vivacity, and, arguing from the seen, it is easy to imagine his work as clerk in a store was soon thrown up. His mother in 1838 went to Paris and kept her son at his medical studies by taking in some students also Mauri- tians, but she died soon after and Brown affixed her maiden name to his own. In 1S40 he was admitted M. D. of Paris with a thesis on "Researches and Experiments on the Physiology of the Spinal Cord." In 1S49 he was auxiliary physician under Baron Larrey at the military hospital of Gros Caillou during an out- break of cholera.

During these years he had a hard fight with poverty but devoted himself to physiology and on the foundation of the Socidte de Biologie became one of the four secretaries.