House

socket insulator and the machine to make it. In
1849 he was sued for infringement by the owners
of the Morse patents and won the suit (see Sci-
entific American, Oct 26, Nov. 2, 1850). After
the general consolidation of competitive tele-
graphic interests took place, around 1850,
House's apparatus gradually went out of use. In
the early fifties House settled in Binghamton,
N. Y., where he resided for many years, contin-
uing his experimental work in electricity and
patenting many of his devices. In 1885 ne re~
moved to Bridgeport, Conn., where he passed
the remainder of his days. He was married in
New York City, in 1846, to Theresa Thomas of
Buffalo, N. Y., and was survived by an adopted
daughter. Henry Alonzo House \_q.v.] was his
nephew.

[F. L. Pope, "Royal E. House and the Early Tele-
graph," Electrical Engineer (N. Y.), Mar. 6, 1895,
abstracted in the Electrician (London), Mar. 22, 1895 ;
N. Y. Times, Feb. 27, 1895; Electrical Rev. (N. Y.),
Mar. 13, 1895; E. C. Blackman, Hist, of Susquehanna
County, Pa. (1873) ; G. B. Prescott, Hist., Theory and
Practice of the Electric Telegraph (1860) and Elec-
tricity and the Electric Telegraph (1877) ; J. D. Reid,
The Telegraph in America (1879); National Museum
correspondence; Patent Office records.] C.W.M.

HOUSE, SAMUEL REYNOLDS (Oct. 16,
i8i7-Aug. 13, 1899), physician, Presbyterian
clergyman, was the first medical missionary sent
to Siam by the Presbyterian Church in the United
States of America. To House and his co-worker,
Rev. Stephen Mattoon [g.z/.], belong the honor
of having permanently established the mission.
House was born at Waterford, N. Y., the second
son of John and Abby (Platt) House. He was
educated at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute,
Troy, N. Y., at Dartmouth College, and at Union
College, Schenectady, graduating from the last-
named institution in 1837 with the degree of A.B.
and Phi Beta Kappa honors. He took his medi-
cal course at the University of Pennsylvania
(1841-42), the Albany Medical College (1842-
43), and the College of Physicians and Surgeons,
New York, which graduated him with the de-
gree of M.D. in 1845.

Commissioned in 1846, he reached Bangkok
in March 1847 after a voyage of eight months.
For four and a half years he conducted a dispen-
sary in a floating house on the Menam. During
the cholera epidemic of 1849, the fatalities of
which were officially estimated at 40,000 in
Bangkok alone, he was busy night and day min-
istering to any who would accept his services.
Discovering a nascent interest in Western sci-
ence on the part of several nobles and princes, he
planned a series of chemical and physical ex-
periments for the employees of the mission in
order to "awaken their minds," These experi-

House

ments aroused a lively interest on the part of the
progressive group, several of whom sought the
privilege of attendance. Among these men were
the prince who later became King Mongkut and
others who entered his government. When King
Mongkut ascended the throne in 1851 and opened
the country to Western influence, House became
one of his friendly councilors. When Sir John
Bowring sought a revision of the treaty with
England in 1855 the King wished House to act
as advisor to the Siamese commissioners. This
honor he declined, but he consented to serve as
one of the translators of the English proposals.

Experience convinced him that much of the
common suffering of the people was due to igno-
rance of nature, and he soon discerned that the
ignorance was entrenched in religious beliefs.
Persuaded that, in the long run, he could do more
to alleviate distress by inculcating the Christian
philosophy of the universe in the Siamese mind,
he abandoned his profession and after a period
of language study pursued the educational phase
of the missionary's work. In 1852 he was placed
in charge of a school for boys established by the
mission in that year, and, except for a short peri-
od, he continued to be its superintendent to the
termination of his service. On two occasions the
King invited him to take service under him for
the education of the princes. The mission school
popularized Western education, and thus even-
tually led the way to the establishment of a pub-
lic-school system in Siam. The school itself de-
veloped by stages into the present Bangkok
Christian College.

House discovered two varieties of shells previ-
ously unknown to naturalists, to which his name
has been given: Cydostoria Housei and Spirac-
ulum Housei. In 1879 he published Notes on
Obstetric Practises in Siam, a pamphlet. Five
religious tracts in Siamese are also credited to
him, and several chapters in Siam and Laos as
Seen by Our American Missionaries (1884), is-
sued by the Presbyterian Board of Publication.
During furlough he married Harriet Maria Pet-
tit, Nov. 27,1855, and was ordained by the Pres-
bytery of Troy in January 1856. He resigned
from the mission in 1876 and retired to Water-
ford, N. Y., where his death occurred some twen-
ty-three years later.

[Journal and letters of S. R. House, in the archives
of the Presbyt Board of Foreign Missions, N. Y. City;
G. H. Feltus, "The Man with the Gentle Heart," Samuel
Reynolds House of Siam (1924) ; G. B. McFarland,
Hist. Sketch of Protestant Missions in Siam, 1828-
1928 (Bangkok, 1928); H. B. Nason, Biog. Record Of-
ficers and Grads. Rensselaer Poly. Inst. (1887) ; Mis-
sionary Rev. of the World, Oct. 1899; N. Y. Observer,
Aug. 24, 1899; Troy Daily Times, Aug. 14, 1899,]

G.H.F.

260