Page:A cyclopedia of American medical biography vol. 1.djvu/290

 CHOPPIN

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CHOPPIN

Ear and Throat Hospital of Baltimore. A stroke of apoplexy compelled him in 1S94 to retire from a most active and meritorious career and he died at Peters- burg, Virginia, November 2, 1903. Chis- olm was a man of strong personality, unbounded energy, a teacher of great power and full of enthusiasm for his calling. A. A.

J. Am. Med. Ass., Chicago, 1903, xli.

The Hospital Bull., Baltimore, 1910, vol. vi

(Randolph Winslow).

Choppin, Samuel Paul (1S2S-1S80).

Among the descendants of the pioneer families who settled in Louisiana and owned later some of the principal sugar plantations of the golden era on the banks of the great Meschacebe were Paul and Eliza (Sherburne) Choppin, he of Creole parentage. Their son Samuel was born at Baton Rouge October 20, 1828 and had his preliminary education at Jefferson College, Louisiana.

At an early age he began to study medicine at the University of Louisiana, and after spending two years as resident student at the Charity Hospital, New Orleans, graduated as M. D. there in 1S50, afterwards taking up a post-graduate course in Paris and in Italy, spending two years in these studies.

On his return he became demonstrator of anatomy in the University of Louis- iana, and while there was appointed house surgeon to the Charity Hospital, soon becoming one of the ablest surgeons of the whole south.

Besides frequent contributions to med- ical literature, he edited the "New Orleans Medical News and Hospital Gazette." With a combative, energetic temper, he was not content to follow in beaten paths, he was a builder, a creator. And soon we see him with his colleagues, Drs. C. Beard, Cenas and others founding a new school, the New Orleans School of Medi- cine, and its short but brilliant career was only one of the many proofs of his energy and ability. Its success was interrupted by the Civil War. Through all the bloody battles of the confederacy he

lent his entire time to the sick and wounded.

It was after the bloody battle of Shiloh when Beauregard made his masterful retreat to Corinth, that he needed rein- forcements, and naturally chose Dr. Choppin to go to New Orleans to stir up the patriotism of his people.

The war over, Choppin returned to his native state beaten but not conquered.

With spirits undaunted, he went back ruined and bruised, to build up again his practice but, cheered by the love and admiration of his fellow patriots, he was successful.

Still, when the call to duty came again in 1S74, during the painful and disgrace- ful days of the reconstruction, he was the first to raise his voice against the rapa- cious "Carpet Bag Federal Rule" in our city. In 1875 he was appointed president of the board of health and it is as such that he was best remembered. The dreadful epidemic of yellow fever took place in 1878 and, though according to present knowledge he is known to be mistaken, he pursued a really intelligent campaign against the epidemic. It was believed to be due to a germ or miasma or bacillus of infection, carried along in clothes, bedding, trunks, etc., the old fomites theory as it was then called. As he drained and disinfected gutters and low places and burnt tons and tons of tar and emptied barrels and barrels of carbolic acid in the gutters, he may have done some good in destroying the real carriers of infection.

He married first, in October, 1857, Selinia, daughter of Daniel Roberts of Guernsey, England, and after her death, in 1S62, Amelia, daughter of Dr. James Metcalfe of Adams County, Mississippi.

In 1853 he published notes on " Syph- ilis," translated from lectures by Ricord; and among his numerous articles two were of special interest:

"Ligation of the Brachial Artery," 1854, and "Removal of Uterus and Ovary," 1S66.

His energetic and positive nature made him some enemies, but his whole-souled