Edward Constant Seguin

Background

He was born in 1843 in Paris, France, the son of Edouard Seguin. At the age of seven he was brought by his father to the United States.

Education

In 1864 he was graduated from the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York.

In order to acquire special knowledge of mental and nervous diseases, he went to Paris in 1869 and studied under the great masters of the day, Charles Edouard Brown-Sequard, Jean Martin Charcot, and Louis Antoine Ranvier.

Career

Two years before his graduation he was appointed a medical cadet in the regular army. While the training was irregular, the experiences he gained in those stirring times made amends for the lack of classroom instruction, and they also made of him a thorough American patriot. Shortly after his graduation he was appointed acting assistant surgeon at Little Rock; in the spring of 1865 he showed signs of incipient tuberculosis and had himself transferred to New Mexico, where he acted as post surgeon.

Returning to New York in 1869, he came under the influence of Dr. William Henry Draper at the New York Hospital. In 1866 he published a short paper on the use of the thermometer in clinical medicine, and in 1867 two short papers on subcutaneous injections of quinine in malarial fevers, a special form of treatment suggested by Draper. It is of especial interest, inasmuch as this was before the era of asepsis, that he made much of the fact that the hypodermatic needle must be kept clean.

Interested in the question of cerebral localization, he contributed much to the recognition of functional and organic nervous diseases, which at that time was making great strides under the influence of Charcot in France, of Leyden and Carl Wilhelm Nothnagel in Germany, and of Hughlings Jackson in England.

On his return to America he became one of the triad of early American neurologists, the other two being Silas Weir Mitchell and William Alexander Hammond, both older men of world-wide reputation. From 1868-73 he was lecturer on diseases of the nervous system at the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York and from 1873-87 clinical professor.

From 1876-78 he was editor of American Clinical Lectures and from 1879-84 of Archives of Medicine. He was in active practice until 1894, when there appeared the first symptoms of the illness that led to his death four years later. Feeling that some of the procedures he had recorded would be of use to medical science, he collected his scientific papers and published them in 1884 as Opera Minora.

He died in 1898.

Achievements

• Edward Constant Seguin was one of the founders of the American Neurological Association and of the New York Neurological Society. He published a short paper on the use of the thermometer in clinical medicine, which contained what was probably the first temperature chart on record in the United States. In addition to his excellent contributions to the knowledge of mental and spinal diseases, he may be remembered for his faith in the efficacy of drugs properly administered; he was responsible for a treatment that was often successful when others had failed in which iodides were given in large doses.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Opera Minora: A Collection of Essays, Articles, Lectures and Addresses from 1866 to 1882 Inclusive

    ( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)

  • Lectures On Some Points In The Treatment And Management Of Neuroses FACSIMILE

    (High Quality FACSIMILE REPRODUCTION: :Seguin, E. C. (Edwa...)

Views

He had always insisted upon the importance of a broad general medical training.

Personality

He was an inspiring teacher and a very careful diagnostician, who kept wonderfully accurate and detailed clinical records.

Connections

In 1882 his wife, Margaret Amidon, killed herself and her three small children. Seguin later married again.

Father:

Edouard Seguin

Spouse:

Margaret Amidon

influencer:

William Henry Draper

teacher:

Louis Antoine Ranvier

teacher:

Charles Edouard Brown-Sequard

teacher:

Jean Martin Charcot