THE  AMERICAN 
JOURNAL  OF  PHARMACY 
AUGUST,  1897. 
MEMOIR  OF  EDSON  SEWELL  BASTIN. 
Death  at  best  is  a  sad  subject,  but  it  becomes  doubly  so  when,  as 
was  the  case  with  Professor  Bastin,  the  victim  is  cut  down  in  the 
very  zenith  of  his  strength  and  usefulness.  Beginning  as  a  pioneer 
in  what  was  then  the  far  West,  he  naturally  reached  his  full  scientific 
development  later  than  those  who  start  surrounded  with  every  edu- 
cational facility,  and  who  need  to  give  no  thought  to  the  financial 
questions  which  usually  attend  the  attainment  of  an  education. 
But  what  he  lost  in  time  he  gained  in  having  a  broader  and  more 
practical  knowledge,  which  enabled  him  to  more  than  make  up  in 
later  years  what  he  lost  in  early  life. 
The  subject  of  this  memoir  was  born  May  29,  1843,  m  the  south- 
ern part  of  Ozaukee  County,  Wis.,  on  the  southern  shore  of  Lake 
Michigan,  near  what  was  then  the  village  of  Milwaukee.  His  parents, 
probably  of  remote  French  ancestry,  had  come  there  from  north- 
ern New  York  some  time  previously.  His  father  was  a  strong- 
resolute  and  daring  man,  with  rather  a  restless  temperament.  His 
mother  was  sought  for  in  that  sparsely  settled  district  by  the  neigh- 
bors in  times  of  sickness;  their  ailments  she  relieved  to  the  best  of 
her  knowledge  and  ability  by  the  use  of  medicinal  herbs,  gathered 
and  prepared  by  her  own  hands. 
The  boyhood  of  Professor  Bastin  was  divided  between  farm  work 
in  summer  and  attendance  at  the  district  schools  in  winter.  The 
family  afterward  moved  to  Wauwatsa,  Wis.,  and  then  to  Wau- 
kesha, in  the  same  State. 
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