elation in 1885 for his essay on "Disinfectants," and he has invented automatic beat-regulating apparatus. Besides contributions to scientific journals on his specialties, he has published "Photo-Micrographs, and how to make them " (Boston, 1883) "Bacteria" (New York, 1884); and Malaria and Malarial Diseases" (1884).
STERNE, Simon, lawyer, b. in Philadelphia,
Pa., 23 June, 1839. He was graduated in the law
department of the University of Pennsylvania in
1860, and established himself in practice in New
York city. In 1862 he was elected lecturer on
political economy in Cooper union. He was on the
staff of the “Commercial Advertiser” in 1863-'4,
was a founder of the American free-trade league in
1864, and in 1865 published the “Social Science
Review.” Taking an active part in the movement
for the purification of municipal politics, he was
chosen secretary of the committee of seventy in
1870, and drafted the charter that was advocated
by that committee. In 1876 he was appointed by
Gov. Samuel J. Tilden on a commission to devise a
plan for the government of cities, in 1879 acted as
counsel for the New York board of trade and
transportation and chamber of commerce in the investigation
of abuses in railroad management, which
resulted in the appointment of a board of railroad
commissioners for the state of New York. He was
also a leader in the movement that resulted in the
creation of the inter-state commerce commission,
drafting the inter-state commerce bill in conjunction
with the committee of the United States senate.
In 1885 he was appointed by President Cleveland
a commissioner to examine and report on the
relations between the railroads and the governments
of western Europe. An essay that he read
before the American bar association on “Slip-shod
Legislation” led to the appointment in 1888 of a
committee of the legislature to consider reforms in
the drafting of laws. He has been a frequent
writer on economical and political subjects,
contributed articles on “Cities,” “Legislation,”
“Monopolies,” “Railways,” and “Representation” to
John J. Lalor's “Cyclopædia of Political Science
and United States History” (1881-'3), and is the
author of “Representative Government and Personal
Representation” (Philadelphia, 1870) and
“Constitutional History and Political Development in the
United States” (New York, 1882; 4th ed., 1888).
STETEFELDT, Carl August, mining engineer,
b. in Holzhausen, near Gotha, Germany, 28 Sept.,
1838. He was educated at the gymnasium in
Gotha, the University of Göttingen, and at the
mining-school in Clausthal, where he was graduated
in 1861. Soon afterward he came to this
country, and since that time he has been engaged
in the practice of his profession as a mining
engineer and metallurgist. At present (1888) he
devotes himself principally to consultation, and has
his office in New York. He is widely known
through the mining districts by his invention of
the Stetefeldt furnace, which is extensively used in
the west for the roasting of silver ores preparatory
to the extraction of the metal by either amalgamation
or lixiviation. Mr. Stetefeldt has been a
member of the American institute of mining
engineers since 1881, and was its vice-president in
1885-7. Besides technical papers he has written
“The Lixiviation of Silver Ores with Hyposulphite
Solutions” (New York, 1888).
STETSON, Charles Augustus, hotel-proprietor,
b. in Newburyport, Mass., 1 April, 1810; d. in
Reading, Pa., 29 March, 1888. His father was
proprietor of a hotel in Newburyport. The son adopted
the same calling, and after taking charge of the
Tremont house, Boston, in 1830, and Barnum's
hotel, Baltimore, in 1833, became proprietor of the
Astor house, New York, in 1837, and kept it till
1875, for the first twenty years of this period in
partnership with Robert B. Coleman. In 1851 he
was quartermaster-general of New York, and he was
usually known by his military title. Gen. Stetson
acquired a wide reputation as a hotel-keeper in the
days when the Astor house was almost the only
large hotel in New York, and became intimate with
many eminent men, including Daniel Webster,
Henry Clay, Rufus Choate, and William H. Seward.
The Astor house was the scene of all the great
public dinners of those times, and the regular
resting-place of congressmen from the eastern states
in going to and returning from Washington. During
the civil war Gen. Stetson showed many acts of
kindness to soldiers on their way through New
York, and he was publicly thanked by Gov. John
A. Andrew, of Massachusetts.
STEUART, Richard Sprigg, physician, b. in
Baltimore, Md., 1 Nov., 1797; d. there, 13 July,
1876. He was educated at St. Mary's college,
Baltimore, and studied medicine at the University of
Maryland, receiving his degree in 1822. Beginning
practice in Baltimore, he was elected in 1828 president
of the Maryland hospital for the insane,
which he reorganized, and of which he was president
till his death. He was an active coadjutor of
Dorothea L. Dix in her efforts to improve the
condition and treatment of the insane, occupied a good
position among the alienists of the country, and
lectured to the public on the subject of insanity.
Mainly through his efforts the Spring Grove
insane asylum was built for the state of Maryland at
a cost of $850,000. the result of public and private
contributions. — His son, James Aloysius,
physician, b. in Baltimore, Md., 3 April, 1828, was
graduated at St. Mary's college in 1847 and at the
school of medicine of the University of Maryland
in 1850. He established himself in practice in
Baltimore, and became physician to the city general
dispensary, and assistant physician to the Maryland
hospital for the insane. Since 1875 he has been
health commissioner, registrar of vital statistics,
and president of the city board of health. Under
his management the health department has been
reorganized, and the annual death-rate has been
reduced from 26 to 19 per thousand. He checked an
incipient outbreak of yellow fever in 1886, and has
aided in suppressing two epidemics of small-pox.
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STEUBEN, Frederick William Augustus Henry Ferdinand von, known in this country as Baron Steuben, German soldier, b. in Magdeburg, Prussia, 15 Nov., 1730; d. in Steubenville, N. Y., 28 Nov., 1794. His father, a captain in the army, took him when a mere child into the Crimea, whither he was ordered. The boy was only ten years old when the father returned to Prussia. He was educated in the Jesuit colleges at Neisse and Breslau, and distinguished himself as a mathematician. At fourteen he served with his father in the war of 1744, and was present at the siege of Prague. At the age of seventeen he entered as cadet in an infantry regiment, and in two years was promoted to ensign, and four years afterward to lieutenant. He served in the seven years' war and was wounded in the battle of Prague. In 1754 he was made adjutant-general in the free corps of Gen. John von May, but after the death of the latter he re-entered the regular army in 1761, and was taken prisoner by the Russians at the capitulation of Colberg. In 1762 he was made aide to Frederick the Great, and took part in the celebrated siege of Schweidnitz, which closed the military
