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 SEAMAN

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SEGUIN

(1875-6); "Lister's Antiseptic Treat- ment of Wounds" (1878-9); "Blood- letting and Kindred Qusetions" (1881-2) ; " Tetanus and Tetany " (1884-5).

He was the first to introduce Lister's practice into the South and is rightly regarded as the father of antiseptic surgery in Louisiana. J. G. R.

Seaman, Valentine (1765-1817).

Valentine Seaman, a New York physician, was the fourth son of Willet Seaman, a merchant, and descendant from John Seaman who arrived from England and settled in Hempstead about 1660.

The City Almshouse was the only institution where medical instruction could be had and Valentine after study- ing with Nicholas Romayne, entered there as resident i)hysician. In 1791, he took his M. D. at the University of Pennsylvania, and was made one of the surgeons to the New York Hospital, which post he held until his death.

He was very active in introducing vaccination into his city and vaccinated his own son and a number of citizens, and in 1816, published a discourse on the subject. In 1810-11 he, with several other doctors, formed a new medical institution whch was associated with Queen's College, New Brunswick, but it only lived three years. The manumis- sion of slaves and the mental improve- ment of midwives were two other things concerning which this active enthusiast was very keen.

In the winter of 1815 he had inflamma- tion of the lungs and developed consump- tion which ended his life in June, 1817. He married the second daughter of John Ferris, of Westchester and had nine children.

He wrote: "An Account of the Epi- demic Yellow Fever as it Appeared in New York in 1795" (New York, 1796); "The Midwife's Monitor and Mother's Mirror," etc. (New York, 1800); "Phar- macopeia Chirurgica in usum nosicomii Novi Eboracensis" (New York, 1811), and many other articles for the " New

Vol. 11-23

York Medical Repository" in 1798 and

1808.

Biog. Lex. der Hervorragenden Aerztc,

Wien.. 1887.

William's Am. Med. Biog.

Seguin, Edward Constant (1843-1898).

Edward Constant Seguin was born in Paris in 1843, the son of Edouard Seguin, well known for his researches on idiocy and his work in training the feeble- minded. The elder Seguin came to America in 1848; the son studied at the College of Physicians, New York, where he graduated in 1864. In 1862 he was appointed a medical cadet in the regular army and served two terms, later at Little Rock, Arkansas, and was post-surgeon at Forts Craig and Selden, in New Mex- ico. The winter of 1869-70 was spent in Paris under the teaching of Brown-Se- quard, Cornil and Charcot, which deeply interested him in diseases of the nervous system. In 1871 he became connected with the College of Physicians and Surgeons and founded a clinic for these diseases.

But while his chief work was in the direction of such healing it must not be forgotten that to him in great part was due the introduction of medical ther- mometry into the United States. In a footnote to the first article in Seguin's " Opera Minora, " called " The Use of the Thermometer in Clinical Medicine" ("Chicago Medical Journal," May, 1886,) Amidon said: "this article and the observations leading to it form the start- ing-point of medical thermometry in the United States." The work was done by Dr. W. H. Draper and Dr. Seguin and is interesting as presenting probably the first temperature chart on record in this country. It is called "A Record of Vital Signs" and gives a chart of the pulse, respirations and temperature. His papers on aphasia, infantile paralysis, on tetanoid paraplegia, and, above all, his lectures and admirable series of papers on localization of brain-lesions did a great deal to stimulate the study and practice of neurology. His work on spastic para- plegia, his lectures and series of papers