The American Cyclopædia (1879)/Kneeland, Samuel

KNEELAND, Samuel, an American naturalist, born in Boston, Aug. 1, 1821. He graduated at Harvard college in 1840, and at the medical school of the same institution in 1843, and studied in Paris till 1845. Subsequently he practised medicine in Boston, taught anatomy in the Harvard school, was connected for two years with the Boston dispensary, was for five years secretary of the Boston natural history society, and for two years of the American academy of arts and sciences. He also explored Brazil, the copper region of Lake Superior, and the Hawaiian islands. From 1862 to 1866 he was surgeon in the army, first under Gen. Burnside, but for most of the time serving in New Orleans and Mobile. In August, 1866, he was appointed secretary of the Massachusetts institute of technology, and professor of zoölogy and physiology in that institution, which posts he still holds (1875). In the summer of 1874 he visited Iceland, at the time of its millennial celebration, for the purpose of studying the volcanic phenomena of that island. He edited the &ldquo;Annual of Scientific Discovery&rdquo; from 1866 to 1869, wrote most of the zoölogical and many medical articles in the &ldquo;New American Cyclopædia&rdquo; and the &ldquo;American Cyclopædia,&rdquo; and has contributed largely to scientific periodicals. Besides a translation of Andry's &ldquo;Diseases of the Heart&rdquo; and an edition of Smith's &ldquo;History of the Human Species,&rdquo; he has published &ldquo;The Wonders of the Yosemite Valley and of California&rdquo; (Boston, 1871).