Wesley Newcomb
{{Short description|American physician and malacologist}}
{{Infobox scientist
|name = Wesley Newcomb
|image = Wesley-Newcomb.jpg
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|caption = Wesley Newcomb
|birth_date = 1818
|birth_place = New York City
|death_date = {{BirthDeathAge|{{^}}|{{^}}|{{^}}|{{^}}|1892|01|26}} (aged 84)
|death_place = Ithaca, New York
|residence =
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|nationality = American
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|fields = malacology
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Wesley Newcomb (1818–1892) was an American physician and a malacologist who specialized in land snails.
Life
Wesley Newcomb was born in New York in 1818. His father was physician Simon Newcomb.{{cite news |author= Robert Edwards Carter Stearns |date= March 1892 |title= In memoriam - Dr. Wesley Newcomb |work= The Nautilus |volume=5 |number=2 |url= https://archive.org/stream/nautilus59192amer#page/n153/mode/2up |pages=121–124 }} [https://archive.org/stream/nautilus59192amer#page/n5/mode/1up portrait]. He studied medicine at the Jefferson Medical College (now Thomas Jefferson University) and Castleton Medical College in Vermont.
He traveled to San Francisco in 1849, and Honolulu, Hawaii in 1850.
He went into practice with Dr. William Hillebrand,{{cite journal
| last = Greer
| first = Richard A.
| title = Founding of the Queen's Hospital
| journal = Hawaiian Journal of History
| volume = 3
| pages = 110–145
| publisher = Hawaiian Historical Society
| location = Honolulu
| year = 1969
| pmid = 11632066
| hdl = 10524/288}} who married his stepdaughter Anna Post on November 16, 1852.{{cite web |url= http://www.ulukau.org/gsdl2.7/cgi-bin/algene?e=q&a=d&d=D10-000157&gg=1 |title= Oahu marriage record 1832-1900 |work=state archives digital collections |publisher=state of Hawaii |accessdate= 2010-01-09 }} He identified over a hundred new species of snails.
In 1856 he returned to New York, before visiting Europe in 1857. In 1858 he practiced in Oakland, California. In 1867 his collection was bought by Ezra Cornell, and he moved to Cornell University. From 1870 to 1888 he was curator of the Cornell Museum.{{cite web |title= Wesley Newcomb |url= http://www.inhs.uiuc.edu/~ksc/Malacologists/NewcombW.html |accessdate= 2010-01-09 |publisher= University of Illinois Natural History Survey }}
He died in Ithaca, New York on January 26, 1892.
Some species named by Newcomb
- Modiola peasei Newcomb, 1870 is a synonym of Amygdalum peasei (Newcomb, 1870)
- Mya hemphilli Newcomb, 1874 is a synonym of Mya arenaria Linnaeus, 1758
- Proto cornelliana Newcomb, 1870 is a synonym of Turbonilla varicosa (A. Adams, 1855)
References
{{Reflist}}
Further reading
- Clarke A. H. (1960) [https://openlibrary.org/b/OL255709M/Catalogue_and_illustrations_of_mollusks_described_by_Wesley_Newcomb Catalogue and illustrations of mollusks described by Wesley Newcomb with a biographical resume]. Bulletins of American paleontology 41(188): 136-160.
External links
{{Commons category|Wesley Newcomb}}
{{Authority control}}
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Category:American malacologists
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