They arrived safely at Chilcat, and then travelled northward along the coast until they reached the station of the Alaska trailing company at the head of Stewart's river. Leaving the Jesuits to establish a mission among the Stekin Indians, the archbishop, with Puller and some Indian guides, set out on 8 Sept. for Muklakayet, a village near the mouth of the Tannanah river, which he reached on 24 Oct. He spent a few weeks in missionary duties among the Indians of this trading-post, by whom he was well received, and then decided to push on to Nulata. 200 miles down the Yukon river. Travelling on sleds, the party arrived at a deserted village about thirty miles from their destination. They entered a hut, and, after making a fire, lay down before it. At daylight the next morning Fuller, who had several times exhibited anger at being drawn farther and farther into these desolate regions, levelled his rifle at the archbishop and shot him. The murderer, while afterward expressing great remorse, gave no sufficient reason for committing the crime. Archbishop Seghers. besides being one of the most adventurous of explorers, was a divine of great erudition and an effective pulpit orator.
SEGUIN, Arthur Edward Sheldon, actor
and singer, b. in London, England, 7 April, 1809;
d. in New York city, 13 Dec., 1852. He was one of
the earliest pupils of the Royal academy of music,
from which he retired in 1830 with all the honors.
He first appeared at the Queen's theatre, London,
in 1831 as Polyphemus in Handel's “Acis and
Galatea,” and in 1838 came to this country and
made his first appearance on the American stage
on 15 Oct., at the National theatre, New York, as
Gen. Von der Teimer in the opera of “Amelie.”
He afterward performed in the principal cities
with great success as a bass-singer and comic actor.—His
wife, whose maiden name was Ann Childe,
b. in London, England, in 1814, was a pupil of the
Royal academy of music, and appeared for several
seasons at Her Majesty's theatre, London. She was
long a member of the Italian opera company in
that city, and first appeared on the American stage,
15 Oct., 1838, at the National theatre, New York
city. She subsequently travelled as a star through
the United States and gained great popularity.
She made her first appearance in Philadelphia, 4
Nov., 1839, as Linda in “Der Freischütz,” but afterward
retired from the stage and engaged in teaching
in New York, where she died in 1888.
SEGUIN, Édouard, physician, b. in Clamecy,
France, 20 Jan., 1812; d. in New York city, 28
Oct., 1880. He was educated at the College of
Auxerre and St. Louis, and then studied medicine
and surgery under Jean Gaspard Itard. At the
suggestion of Itard he determined to devote himself
to the training of idiots, and thoroughly investigated
the causes and philosophy of idiocy and the
best means of dealing with it. In 1837 he began
to treat an idiot boy, and in 1839 he opened the
first school for idiots. He was soon able to obtain
remarkable results by his system of training. In
1844 a commission from the Academy of sciences
in Paris examined critically his plan of educating
idiot children, and in their report declared that, up
to the time when he began his labors, idiots could
not be educated or cured by any means, but that
he had solved the problem. After the revolution
of 1848 he came to the United States, and after
visiting various schools, modelled on his own, that
had been established in the United States, and
assisting in their organization, he settled in Cleveland,
and later in Portsmouth, Ohio. In 1860 he
removed to Mount Yernon, N. Y., and he received
the degree of M. D. from the medical department
of the University of the city of New York in 1861,
after which he came to reside in New York city.
Subsequent to 1866 he devoted attention to the
study of animal heat, adding greatly to the knowledge
on that subject by the methods of thermometry
that he devised and the instruments that
he invented, of which the physiological thermometer,
largely used by physicians, is the most
important. In 1873 he was a commissioner to the
World's fair in Vienna from the United States, and
published a special “Report on Education.” He
was a member of various medical societies, and was
president of the Association of medical officers of
American institutions for idiotic and feeble-minded
persons. To Dr. Seguin more than any other person
is due the honor of showing to what degree
the congenital failures of nature can be redeemed
and educated to comparative usefulness. According
to his testimony, “not one idiot in a thousand
has been entirely refractory to treatment, not one
in a hundred has not been made more happy and
healthy; more than thirty per cent. have been taught
to conform to social and moral law, and rendered
capable of order, of good feeling, and of working like
the third of a man; more than forty per cent. have
become capable of the ordinary transactions of life
under friendly control, of understanding moral and
social abstractions, of working like two-thirds of a
man; and twenty-five to thirty per cent. come nearer
and nearer to the standard of manhood, till some of
them will defy the scrutiny of good judges when
compared with ordinary young men and women.”
His writings, which are numerous, include
“Résumé de ce que nous avons fait pendant quatorze
mois” (Paris, 1839); “Conseils à M. O. sur l'éducation
de son enfant idiot” (1839); “Théorie et
pratique de l'éducation des idiots” (2 parts, 1841-'2);
“Hygiène et éducation des idiots” (1843); “Images
graduées a l'usage des enfants arrièrés et
idiots” (1846); “Traitement moral, hygiène et
éducation des idiots et des autre enfants arrièrés”
(1840), which is accepted as the standard authority
on the subject; “Jacob Rogrigue Péreire, notice
sur sa vie et ses travaux” (1847); “Historical Notice
of the Origin and Progress of the Treatment of
Idiots” (translated by Dr. John S. Newberry, Hartford,
1856); “Idiocy and its Treatment by the
Physiological Method” (New York, 1866); “New Facts
and Remarks concerning Idiocy” (1879);
“Prescription and Clinical Record” (1870); “Medical
Thermometry,” with C. A. Wunderlich (1871);
“Manual of Thermometry for Mothers” (1873);
“Thermométres physiologiques” (Paris, 1873);
“Tableaux de thermométrie mathématique” (1873);
and “Medical Thermometry and Human Temperature”
(New York, l876).
SÉGUR, Louis Philippe, Count de, French historian, b. in Paris, 10 Dec., 1753; d. there. 27 Aug., 1830. He was the eldest son of the field-marshal Louis de Ségur, studied in the school of artillery at Strasburg, and obtained in 1769 the commission of lieutenant of cavalry. He was promoted captain in 1771, and lieutenant-colonel of the regiment Orleans in 1770. He became an advocate of the cause of the American colonists at court, and as early as 1777 asked from the king permission to serve in this country as a volunteer, but was reprimanded. He was afterward appointed colonel of the regiment Soissonnois," and embarked on 7 April, 1781, in the frigate "La Gloire." He served during the remainder of the war, and after the withdrawal of the French forces in 1782 obtained leave to remain, and visited the southern states, Mexico. Peru. and Santo Domingo, where he
