Souchon, Edmond, M. D., St. Landry Parish, then Orleans Parish, Louisiana
Submitted by Mike Miller

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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