OBITUARY.

[TRANSLATED FROM THE PARIS MEDICAL GAZETTE.]

THE "Constitutionel" of the 9th of August, 1856, contained a short article thus worded:

"A Swiss journal says that on Monday, 28th of July, "there was discovered on Mount Pilate the corpse of a "stranger, who, it appears, met with his death by falling "from a rock. A visiting card found on him bore the name "of Henri Schedel. A roll of gold of one thousand francs was "in one of his pockets.'

The journals are good for something, it cannot be denied; they collect from all parts news joyful or heart-rending; they register in their impassible columns events which pierce many a heart as with a dagger,―nevertheless, we must thank them for this useful cruelty; for it is better to know than to ignore; certainty is always preferable to doubt; we weep over the memory of the Dead, when we might otherwise have accused the absent one of forgetfulness, perhaps of ingratitude.

Thus, this notice of the "Constitutionel," carelessly thrown to the public, went direct to the home of a family and of friends. Those who knew that Schedel had recently left for Switzerland, experienced a great shock; they endeavored in their own hearts to cast a doubt on so dire a misfortune; they made inquiries; they wrote to every one they presumed might give information; and, but too soon, the cruel truth appeared in all its naked horror: the corpse found at

the base of the mountain was that of Henry Schedel, of a dear friend, so worthy in every respect of all our sympathies and love.

We do not pretend to impose on the public our sorrows, however bitter they are; a private mourning has not the right to aspire to the honors of a funeral oration. However, there are men whose voluntary obscurity is replete with useful lessons, who deserve that one should bring forth their life to the open light, because theirs was a useful life; men who should not be forgotten whilst scientific knowledge has inherited many fruits of their labor of incontestable value. We sincerely believe that Doctor Henry Schedel was one of those

men.

Appointed resident student (Interne) in the hospitals in 1824, Schedel, who had hardly completed his twentieth year, soon entered the hospital "St. Louis" in the department of Professor Biett. Here he gave his whole soul to the study of the diseases of the skin; he noted and ranged methodically the clinical lessons of Biett, dividing, with his fellow-student Cazenave, the task of collecting the materials of a work that has long since acquired a distinguished rank in science, and that four successive editions have rendered European.' Schedel, by a fortunate concourse of circumstances, spoke with equal facility the French, the English, and the German languages; he was thoroughly acquainted with the current medical literature of those countries, and, thus, his slightest works acquired the authority of an erudition uncommon among us, and especially among the men of his age.

Intrepid worker, he received the gold medal awarded by the Hospitals in 1827, and his diploma of Doctor in Medicine the 23d of April, 1828. All indicated that our young fellowstudent would attain to eminence in a career he so brilliantly entered; but another destiny was in reserve for him. Professor Biett confided to him an important medical post, which, henceforth, absorbed all his care; and, thus, Schedel was lost to the ordinary practice of our art. Free from the daily preoccupations incidental on establishing a practice, he gave

This work is also in general use in all the medical colleges in the United States.

his whole mind to the labors of the closet; he wrote the greater part of the "Treatise on the Diseases of the Skin;" he made himself acquainted with all that was published on the subject, and enriched each edition with new and interesting articles. Nevertheless, we may assert that he grieved over the success of a work, the whole credit of which he was desirous to surrender to Professor Biett, to whom it really belonged; to Biett, who, too modest and too busy, had generously disvested himself in favor of his favorite scholar, of deep researches on the subject, of the results acquired in the course of a fortunate practice, and of an instruction then full of renown.

Schedel travelled a great deal; he successively visited Italy, Germany, and Great Britain, and devoted much of his time to the most celebrated universities of those countries, where he became the friend of the most eminent professors. And each return to Paris was marked by an increase of scientific lore; by some new work; by new observations, collected with a patient care and a conscientious precision.

But this laborious and quiet life was not to last long. Death gathered around him those between whom he divided his time and his affectionate care; and, henceforth alone, he entered upon a new career-one full of labor and "ennuis." A prey to deep-seated melancholy, with a bleeding heart, he had recourse to unceasing labor to fill the measure of days which weighed heavily on him.

Some slight attacks of Rheumatism having induced him to make use of lotions and cold water frictions, he resolved to make himself acquainted with the real worth of this mode of treatment. He therefore went to Graefenberg to study Hydropathy at its source, i. e., in the vast establishment founded by Priessnitz.

He told us of the difficulties without number which met him there; of the obstacles he had to overcome, before he could obtain from that jealous quack-doctor permission to observe the strange clinic where the boldness and sagacity of the inventor turned to account the credulity of the patients,

and instituted one of the fullest experiments that has ever been attempted in favor of an eccentric method. Priessnitz could not bring himself to believe that any man would reside in his wilderness would pass weeks and months studying the strange mode of treatment to which he subjected his patients, with no other object in view than to note results, and that without an after-thought of profit. In his eyes, every physician was a rival the founder of a new establishment which would hereafter absorb a part of his practice. But Schedel never gave up easily a course that he had once conceived to be useful. He persevered, therefore, and finally, by presents and kind words, he tamed that covetous and savage nature.

After an absence of more than a year, he returned to Paris, bearing with him materials for a work which appeared in 1843, under the title of "a Clinical Examen of Hydropathy." The introduction, which is written with great care, is certainly one of the best articles that has been published on Hydropathy. This work remains as a scientific document of great value. It is an inquest severe and full of lucidity on a general curative method which occupies, at the present time, an important position in Therapeutics, and is worthy of the attention of the wisest practitioners. We owe to Schedel an acknowledgment for having shown us all the advantages that can be obtained therefrom, and the resources, unhoped for, it contains, which enable the practitioner to struggle with success against morbid injuries that hitherto have been a cause of despair to the most conscientious physicians.

Later, struck with the tendency of the public mind towards organic chemistry, and fully convinced that that science hides within her bosom the key to certain points of Pathology, Schedel started suddenly for Giessen, where he remained a whole year, in the laboratory of the illustrious professor Liebig. Prosecuting, with stubborn enthusiasm, the study of all questions of general hygeine; the causes which influence the chemical composition of the atmosphere; the nature of the effluvia which determine the paludal in

toxication, he soon after visited those countries where fevers are endemical, in order better to ascertain the effect of those miasma; and published in the Paris Medical Gazette a very interesting article on the topography of the Isle of Walcheren, and furnished arguments contrary to the thesis of Dr. Boudin; to wit, the absence of pulmonary tubercula where reign intermittent fevers.

But the activity of mind of Schedel was not satisfied; it required a more substantial food; a subject more difficult; an abstract theme, capable of absorbing in incessant and profound meditation the whole mind of a man for whom ordinary pleasures were an "ennui," and relaxation a fatigue. Thus it happened that Schedel read one day in an English newspaper, that a prize was offered for the most satisfactory work on a question of high philosophy. It was nothing less than a research into the origin of Theology, to ascertain to what extent that science concords with the divers systems of ancient and modern philosophy, to establish the basis of this alliance, and to demonstrate how the liberty of conscience of man can still subsist in the midst of the moral circumstances which press upon him.

How came it that Schedel attempted such a subject; how came he to quit the path of medical observation to plunge in the deep gloom of mediæval scholastics, is a fact that surprises those only who were not acquainted with the vigorous grasp of that meditative mind, inured to abstract thought, and with the stubborness of that intellect whose delight was to struggle with obstacles. Schedel studied Arabic, Persian, Hebrew. He made himself acquainted with the different dialects of India; for he acquired a language, ancient or modern, as it were in play. Born in London, of a German father and of an English mother, he came to France when he was still very young. Thus he had acquired, we might say, without having had the trouble to learn them, three languages, which generally cause much labor to those who undertake to learn them; and these served him as an excellent basis whence to direct his linguistic studies. Thus he was able to read in