Bio-Pen Pictures
SURNMAES: McDERMIT,
Medical science is a different thing nowadays from what it was but a little time since. The physician is not now permitted to practice until he has undergone a long and careful training, and has passed successfully a searching and severe examination. Those who make a specialty of particular branches, or seek to go beyond a single degree, must pursue another course of study and practice, and devote much longer time to it. To the credit of the medical profession be it said its devotees are mostly men of ardor in its pursuit, and neither time, labor, nor expense is spared by the modern physician in the course of his preparation for active practice. George W. Seifert, M. D., though a young man, has already proved his fitness for the duties of his profession, both by the careful preparation he has made for his duties and the success he has met as a practitioner. Born at Santa Clara, April 18, 1860, he was in a sense initiated into the profession at the beginning, being the son of William Seifert, M.D., long one of the leading and most successful physicians in Santa Clara, and a man of great erudition, and of no mean note. He was a native of Breslau, Germany, receiving a thorough classical training in the celebrated university of that city. He earned his degree of M. D. at the University of Magdeburg, Germany, graduating there with honor. He afterward became Demonstrator of Anatomy in the Medical Department of the University of Berlin, Germany, and for several years was a surgeon in the Austrian army. In 1849 he came to America, landing in New York city, where he remained a few months before starting over the plains to California. At Fort Hall he stopped for three years, practicing among the soldiers and Indians, after which he went to the gold diggings in Southern Oregon and Northern California, practicing and mining. In 1854 he came to Santa Clara, remaining there, pursuing the successful practice of medicine, until his death, which took place December 29, 1884, at the age of sixty-nine. In 1856 he was married, at Santa Clara, to Miss Ann McDermit, a native of Ireland.
They had but one child, George W. Seifert, the subject of this sketch, who was reared in Santa Clara, and was educated in the Santa Clara College, graduating there as B. S., in 1879. He then began the study of medicine under the tutorage of his father. In 1883 he graduated as M. D. at the Jefferson Medical College at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, after which he passed a competitive examination to enter the hospital of that city, against not only the students of Jefferson College but also of the University of Pennsylvania, and, excelling all, he received the appointment as Resident Physician, a position he held for sixteen months, twelve months of that time being Senior Physician. Since graduation he has taken three post-graduate courses. In 1883 at the Lying-in Charity Institute of Philadelphia; 1884, at Jefferson College, Philadelphia, and the same year at the Eye and Ear Dispensary of Philadelphia, receiving diplomas from each. In August, 1884, he returned to Santa Clara and entered upon the practice of his profession in connection with his father, being soon after appointed physician to the Santa Clara College. Although the Doctor has met with the success in his profession that only comes from accurate knowledge, joined to trained skill, gaining the confidence of the people on account of his thorough training and scholarly attainments, he has now gone to Europe in order to pursue further, and under the better opportunities there obtainable, the study of his specialties.
It is his intention to visit the hospitals and the leading specialists in the capitals and other centers, making a specialty of the study of surgery and diseases of the eye.
Dr. Seifert is a gentleman of easy bearing, thorough culture, and of great attainment, as is shown in his frequent successful operations in critical surgery, and has made for himself the reputation of a skillful and scientific surgeon.
Pen Pictures From The Garden of the World or Santa Clara County, California, Illustrated. - Edited by H. S. Foote.- Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1888.
Pg. 499-500
SANTA CLARA COUNTY The Valley of Heart's Delight