Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/691

NAME KNAPP 669 KNIESKERN Knapp, Moses L. (1799-1879) Moses L. Knapp, member of the first class graduated at Jefferson Medical College (1826), said that his "thesis was the first handed ni to the Dean, the first examined, and he was understood by the professors and the class to be the first graduate." George McClellan (q. v.), professor of surgery, and another professor had promised onfe to Knapp, the other to an- other student the honor of being the first grad- uate, so they compromised by accepting Knapp's thesis first and awarding his diploma third. His thesis on "Apocynum Cannabinum (Indian Hemp)" was the first thesis pub- lished by Jefferson. He was professor of materia medica and president of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of the University of Iowa, also pro- fessor of matera medica in the Indiana Med- ical College (organized, 1842, extinct, 1849) 1844-1847. An affection of the lungs induced him to move to Mexico, where it is said his life was prolonged by a "diet of succulents and fruits (goat's milk, oranges and sweet potatoes, es- pecially)." He died at Cadereyta, Nuevo Leon, Mexico, in 1879. The volumes of his so-called pathologj' ("Researches on Primary Pathology and the Origin and Laws of Epidemics," 2 v., 312 pp., Phila., 1857-8) are rather treatises on epidemic cholera, cholera infantum, nursing sore mouth, and the scorbutic diathesis. Howard A. Kelly. Coll. & Clin. Rec, Phila., 18S0, vol. i, p. 7. Kneeland, Samuel (1821-1888) Samuel Kneeland, of Boston, deserves a niche in our medical aula liecause of a splen- did, clear article proving the contagiousness of puerperal fever, at a time when a doctrine of indiidual personal responsibility was most unwelcome to the profession (Amer. Jour. Med. Set., Phila., 1846, xi. 45-63.) He was born in Boston, August 1, 1821, of a family resident in that city for more than a hundred years. His early education was received at the Boston Latin School ; from Harvard he graduated A.B. in 1840; A.M. and M.D. in 1843. After graduation he studied in Paris two years, then returned to practise in Boston for five years. In 1846 he published an es.sa'y, entitled "Contagiousness of Puer- peral Fever," which took the Boylston Prize. His paper "Hydrotherapy" (Amer. Jour. Med. Sei.. Phila.. 1847, xiv, 75-108) also received the Boylston Prize. From 1851 to 1853 he was demonstrator of anatomy at Harvard Medical School, and for two years physician to the Boston Dispensary ; he translated Audry's "Diseases of the Heart." In connection with his work in zoology Kneeland traveled in Brazil, the Hawaiian Isl- ands, the Lake Superior copper region and in Iceland. From 1866 to 1869 he edited The Annual of Scientifie Diseorery and contributed more than eight hundred articles on scientific subjects to Appleton's American Enc3xlop;edia. Dr. Kneeland was secretary of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and of the Bos- ton Society of Natural History. He served as surgeon in the Civil War and from 1863 to 1866 he was in charge succes- sively of the University Hospital, New Or- leans, and of the Marine Hospital, Mobile. In 1866 he was mustered out of the service with the brevet rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. Then he acted as secretary of the Massachusetts In- stitute of Technology and professor of zoology and physiology in that institution. In 1849 he married Eliza Maria, daughter of Daniel T. Curtis, of Cambridge, Massa- chusetts. He died in Hamburg, Germany, September 27, 1888. Phys. & Surgs. of the U. S,, V. B. Atkinson, Phila., 1878. Hist. Har. Med. School, T. F. Harrington, Bos- ton, 1905. Dictn'y Amer. Biog., F. S. Drake, Boston, 1S72. Knieskern, Peter D. (1798- 187 1) Peter D. Knieskern, botanist, was born June 11, 1798, at Berne, All)any County, New York, and died at Shark River, New Jersey, Sep- tember 12, 1871. After securing a liberal edu- cation by his own eft'orts, he graduated in med- icine at the College of Physicians and Sur- geons of the Western District of New York, better known, perhaps, as the Fairfield Med- ical College, the second medical college es- tablished in New York state, and famous in its day. From early life he was passionately fond of botany, and Asa Gra.y said of him : "few botanists have excelled him in their knowledge of the plants of the region in which he resided, and none in zeal, simplicity, and love of science for its own sake." For some years prior to 1841 he resided at Oriskany, Oneida County, New York; in that year he removed to southern New Jersey, spending six years at Manchester, Ocean County, si.x at Squam Village. Monmouth County, and the remainder of his life at Shark River, where he died. He was prob- ably influenced to make his home in the pine- barren region of New Jersey less by profes- sional opportunities than by the peculiar rich- ness of the flora to be found there.