Souchon, Edmond M. D.

Submitted by Mike Miller

Edmond Souchon, M. D. Among the outstanding figures in the medical history not only of New Orleans but of the south, the late Edmond Souchon represented some of the finest ideals of scientific knowledge and skill the service of the medical educator and the leader in public health work.

Doctor Souchon was born at Opelousas, Louisiana, December 1, 1841, and died at his home in New Orleans, August 5, 1924. He was a son of Doctor Eugene and Caroline (Petit) Souchon, his father being a dentist. His grandfather was a soldier under the great Napoleon, and once saved the life of Bonaparte at the siege of St. Jean d'Arc in Egypt, a fact related in "Memorial de Ste. Helene" and a matter of natural pride in the family.

Beginning his education in private and public schools in Louisiana and Alabama, Edmond Souchon went to Paris to complete his academic studies. He had just completed them and was preparing to take up medicine when the Civil war started in America, cutting off his allowance. Determined, however, to complete his program, he combined work with study and despite the handicap after five years, replete with hardships, finished fourth in a class of 350 students.

Shortly after his graduation the world famous Dr. J. Marion Sims went to Paris to demonstrate one of his discoveries in surgery. Doctor Sims could speak no French, and the young Doctor Souchon was engaged as interpreter and assisted the noted surgeon in many operations, thereby getting practical experience that was denied many physicians of the world. On returning to New Orleans Doctor Souchon resumed his medical studies at Tulane, and though still greatly in need of funds, continued schooling himself through the kindness of Dr. T. G. Richardson. He soon became Doctor Richardson's prosector, performing the necessary dissections for Doctor Richardson's lectures on anatomy. Later he became Doctor Richardson's chief of clinic at Charity Hospital and began making a reputation for himself as a surgeon and anatomist. For more than sixty years a resident of New Orleans, Doctor Souchon became one of the best known physicians its the South. His work at Tulane University in connection with the Professorship from which he retired in 1908, with a Carnegie pension for service, his work in building the Richardson Memorial Building and his writings, which have won him a nation-wide reputation in medical circles, placed him in the front rank of the medical men of the country. In 1872 he was appointed demonstrator of anatomy at Tulane and thirteen years later became professor of anatomy and clinical surgery.

In 1892, when Mrs. Richardson made her donation for building and equipping the new Tulane Medical College in Canal Street, Doctor Souchon was selected to design the floor plans and supervise the building. So well was this work accomplished that Mrs. Richardson and the Tulane Building Committee ordered a memorial tablet commending the builder.

Among recognitions accorded Doctor Souchon by the state was his appointment by Governor Wiltz to the Board of Administrators of Charity Hospital, to the presidency of the State Board of Health by Governor Foster, which appointments were continued by Governors Heard and Blanchard. He became president of the Board of Health at a critical time in 1898, after a yellow fever epidemic, and showed great ability as an organizer and tactful administrator in perfecting safeguards and quarantine measures that limited the mortality record with a minimum of inconvenience to the general life and commerce of the city and state.

Among his contributions to medical literature are included articles on anatomy, surgery, sanitation, surgical diseases, injuries of the neck, and he was also inventor of the anesthetizer, used in face and mouth operations.

After his retirement Doctor Souchon devoted years to the founding of an anatomical museum, which before his death the administrators placed in the Richardson Memorial Building and called the Souchon Museum of Anatomy. It is considered one of the best in the world, containing many unusual anatomical exhibits, prepared especially by its founder. Doctor Souchon was president of the New Orleans Medical and Surgical Association, president of the Orleans Parish Medical Society, a member of the Louisiana State Medical Society, founder of the Southern Surgical and Gynecological Association, member and vice-president of the American Medical Association, fellow and vice president of the American Surgical Association, member of the Society of American Anatomists. He served two consecutive terms on the Board of Governors of the Boston Club.

Doctor Souchon married, December 6, 1869, Miss Corinne Lavie, connected with the old Creole families of Sabatier, Mazureav and Grima. There were three children: Dr. Marion Souchon, Mrs. W. E. Kittredge and Miss Selika Souchon.

Of many tributes, professional and otherwise, that have been paid to Doctor Souchon during his life and since his death, one that perhaps best expresses an estimate of his services, in the fewest words, is the editorial from the Times-Picayune, as follows:

"The death of Dr. Edmond Souchon at the ripe age of eighty-two brings to a conclusion one of the most brilliant medical careers in the history of Louisiana therapeutics. In quite recent years the deceased physician has been in dignified retirement from a profession in which his name was famous beyond the confines of city, state and nation, but a quarter century ago no mention of medical New Orleans was complete without the name Edmond Souchon being given a prominent place. In his profession he was distinctly a leader, one who was never content to follow the easy path of recognized and accepted practice. His was the course of the investigator, the student, the pioneer. He was of those who break new ground and carry medical science to new and higher levels of efficiency and success.

"Only some fellow scientist who had followed closely the various studies made by Doctor Souchon would be in a position to name all those in which his searching mentality had gone deepest, but even the layman recognized his high standing among nephrologists and the great value to humanity of his investigations and conclusions regarding that important glandular organ.

"As a guiding light to young physicians, as a student of hospital design and clinical practice, and in a thousand other ways Doctor Souchon for years held high rank, but also in a broader way the deceased gave the fruits of his fine thought and tireless personal activity and skill in public service to New Orleans, winning and holding the respect of the entire community.

"During his declining years Doctor Souchon had the pleasure of seeing his scientific and professional ideals carried forward by a son, Dr. Marion Souchon of New Orleans."

A History of Louisiana, (vol. 2), pp. 5-6, by Henry E. Chambers. Published by The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, 1925.