Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 02.djvu/22

 BROVVN-SEQUARD.

BROWXSON.

Daniel Webster, and in 1864 visited America, where he lectured and practised at both Cam- bridge and Boston. From 1864 to 1868 he held the chair of physiology and pathology of the nervous system at Harvard college, and in 1869 returned to Paris, where he was made professor of experimental and comparative pathology in the ecole de medicine. He had established, when in Paris in 1858, the Journal de la Physiol- ogic de r Homme et des Animaux, and on his return in 1869 he started another journal, which he called Archives de la Physiologic Normale et Pathologiqae. He remained in Paris four years, returning to Ajnerica in 1873 to practise in New York city, and soon after he began to publish, in connection with Dr. Seguin, the " Archives of Scientific and Practical Medicine." Return- ing to France, he was called, in 18T8, to the professorship of experimental medicine at the College of France, to take the place of his former teacher, Claude Bernard, and in the same year was elected to the chair of medicine in the French academy of sciences, from which body he received at various times five prizes, one of them the biennial prize of twenty thousand francs. He also twice received a portion of the grant set aside by the Royal society of London for the i^romotion of science, and honors from many other scientific bodies -were bestowed upon him. Vivisection was necessarily used largely in making his discoveries, and he was subject to much adverse criticism on this account. In 1889 he created a sensation in the press, if not in the scientific world, by announcing the dis- covery of a process of rejuvenating man, and restoring his vitality, by means of a subcutane- ous injection of a peculiar composition extracted from the organs of living animals. He gave the results of his experiments in a special work written in 1890. The theory that " the fibrine of the blood is an excrementitious product, and not subservient to nutrition, originated with him, as did also the discovery that arterial blood is subservient to nutrition, while venous blood is required for muscular contraction." He also determined by his experiments that the animal heat of man is 103° F. He was decorated with the medal of the legion of honor in 1880 and in 1886, and having been elected a member of the academy of science was made its perpetual sec- retary. His publications, contained in pamphlets, periodicals, and cyclopaedias, were catalogued under two hundred and nine titles in 1863. Among his English writings are: Physiology and Pathology of the Nervous System (1860); Lectures on Paralysis of the Lou-er Extremities (1872); Lecture on Functional Affections (1873), and The Elixir of Life (1889). He died April 1, 1894.

BROWNSON, Henry Francis, lawyer and author, svas born near Boston in 1835; son of Dr. Orestes Augustus Brownson. He was educated in the public schools and at the Holy Cross col- lege, Worcester, and was graduated at George- town college. In 1851 he went to Europe and studied in Paris and Munich. Upon his return to America in 1854. lie became associate editor of Brow}ison's Quarterly Rei'ieic, and translated Balnie's Fundamental Pltilosophy (1856). He served as 2d lievitenant, l.st lieutenant and cap- tain in the 3d U.S. artillery 1861-70; practiced law at Detroit, Mich., 1870-82, and from the latter year devoted himself to literature. He edited and publislied the works of his father (20 vols. 1882-87) and translated froin the Italian Francesco Tarducci's Life of Columbus. He originated and was chairman of the Catholic congress at Baltimore in 1889; received the de- gree LL.D. from Notre Dame university and the Laetave medal in 1892.

BROWNSON, Nathan, governor of Georgia, was born abont 1740. He was graduated at Yale in 1761; studied medicine and practised liis pro- fession in Liberty county, Ga., being the first phj'sician to practise south of the Ogechee river before the Revolution. He was a member of the provincial congress of Georgia in 1775 and was surgeon of the Georgia brigade in the Continen- tal line. He was a delegate to the Continental congress, 1776-'78: a representative in the state legislature, and speaker of the house in 1781; and governor of Georgia in 1782. He was again speaker of the house in 1788; a member of the state constitutional convention of 1789 and presi- dent of the state senate 1789-'91. He died in Liberty county, Ga., Nov. 6, 1796.

BROWNSON, Orestes Augustus, theologist, was born at Stockbridge. Vt., Sept. 16, 1803. His father died when he was a mere child and he was taken in charge by relatives living in Royalton, and brought up in a simple, precise and puritanic way until he was foui'teen. He then found work at Saratoga, N. Y., and earned enough to take a coiu'se of study in the academy at Ballston. When nearly nineteen years old he joined the Presbyterian church, and three years later entered the Universalist ministry, and preached in New York and Vermont. He became editorially connected with the Christian Advocate and was later the editor of the Ph ilanthropist. He was encouraged in matters of social reform by Robert Owen, and made energetic efforts to estab- lish such an organization of the himibler classes as to make them an effective element in ijolitical life. But the times were not ripe and the move- ment failed. About this time he became inter- ested in the religious views of Dr. Channing. and in 1832 became pastor of a Unitarian congrega-