Sidney Irving Smith
Encyclopedia
Sidney Irving Smith was an American
zoologist
.
. Smith married Eugenia Pocahontas Barber in New Haven, Connecticut
on June 29, 1882. The couple had no children, and Eugenia died on March 14, 1916. Smith suffered from hereditary glaucoma
, rendering him partially sighted from 1906, and completely blind
some years before his death. He died on May 6, 1926 of throat cancer.
of Yale University
, and received his Ph.D.
in 1867. He stayed on at Yale, initially as an assistant, but from 1875 as the first professor of comparative anatomy
, a post he retained until his retirement in 1906. Thereafter, Smith remained at Yale as professor emeritus.
Having begun as an entomologist
(being State Entomologist of Maine
and Connecticut
for a number of years), Smith changed relatively early in his career to the study of crustacean
s, probably because of his work with the United States Fish Commission
. He participated in many field excursions, sometimes in collaboration with Verrill or with Louis Agassiz
. Smith was the chief zoologist during the dredging of Lake Superior
carried out by the United States Lake Survey in 1871, and the dredging in the region of St. George's Banks in 1872 carried out by the United States Coast Survey. In 1884, Smith was elected to the National Academy of Sciences
.
.
Sidney Irving Smith was honoured in the specific epithets of a number of species. They include Lembos smithi Holmes, 1905, Metapenaeopsis smithi (Schmitt, 1924), Oxyurostylis smithi Calman
, 1912, Pandarus smithi Rathbun
, 1886 and Siphonoecetes smithianus Rathbun, 1908.
Taxa named by Sidney Irving Smith include:
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
zoologist
Zoology
Zoology |zoölogy]]), is the branch of biology that relates to the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinct...
.
Private life
Sidney Smith was the son of Elliot Smith and Lavinia Barton. His brother in law was Addison Emery VerrillAddison Emery Verrill
Addison Emery Verrill was an American zoologist. He was a student of Louis Agassiz at Harvard University and graduated in 1862...
. Smith married Eugenia Pocahontas Barber in New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven is the second-largest city in Connecticut and the sixth-largest in New England. According to the 2010 Census, New Haven's population increased by 5.0% between 2000 and 2010, a rate higher than that of the State of Connecticut, and higher than that of the state's five largest cities, and...
on June 29, 1882. The couple had no children, and Eugenia died on March 14, 1916. Smith suffered from hereditary glaucoma
Glaucoma
Glaucoma is an eye disorder in which the optic nerve suffers damage, permanently damaging vision in the affected eye and progressing to complete blindness if untreated. It is often, but not always, associated with increased pressure of the fluid in the eye...
, rendering him partially sighted from 1906, and completely blind
Blindness
Blindness is the condition of lacking visual perception due to physiological or neurological factors.Various scales have been developed to describe the extent of vision loss and define blindness...
some years before his death. He died on May 6, 1926 of throat cancer.
Education and career
In his youth, Sidney Irving Smith became expert on the fauna around his home town, and an expert at making collections, particularly of insects. He studied at the Sheffield Scientific SchoolSheffield Scientific School
Sheffield Scientific School was founded in 1847 as a school of Yale College in New Haven, Connecticut for instruction in science and engineering. Originally named the Yale Scientific School, it was renamed in 1861 in honor of Joseph E. Sheffield, the railroad executive. The school was...
of Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
, and received his Ph.D.
Doctor of Philosophy
Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...
in 1867. He stayed on at Yale, initially as an assistant, but from 1875 as the first professor of comparative anatomy
Comparative anatomy
Comparative anatomy is the study of similarities and differences in the anatomy of organisms. It is closely related to evolutionary biology and phylogeny .-Description:...
, a post he retained until his retirement in 1906. Thereafter, Smith remained at Yale as professor emeritus.
Having begun as an entomologist
Entomology
Entomology is the scientific study of insects, a branch of arthropodology...
(being State Entomologist of Maine
Maine
Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...
and Connecticut
Connecticut
Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...
for a number of years), Smith changed relatively early in his career to the study of crustacean
Crustacean
Crustaceans form a very large group of arthropods, usually treated as a subphylum, which includes such familiar animals as crabs, lobsters, crayfish, shrimp, krill and barnacles. The 50,000 described species range in size from Stygotantulus stocki at , to the Japanese spider crab with a leg span...
s, probably because of his work with the United States Fish Commission
United States Fish Commission
The United States Commission of Fish and Fisheries was established on February 9, 1871 , as an independent commission with a mandate to investigate the causes for the decrease of commercial fish and aquatic animals in U.S...
. He participated in many field excursions, sometimes in collaboration with Verrill or with Louis Agassiz
Louis Agassiz
Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz was a Swiss paleontologist, glaciologist, geologist and a prominent innovator in the study of the Earth's natural history. He grew up in Switzerland and became a professor of natural history at University of Neuchâtel...
. Smith was the chief zoologist during the dredging of Lake Superior
Lake Superior
Lake Superior is the largest of the five traditionally-demarcated Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded to the north by the Canadian province of Ontario and the U.S. state of Minnesota, and to the south by the U.S. states of Wisconsin and Michigan. It is the largest freshwater lake in the...
carried out by the United States Lake Survey in 1871, and the dredging in the region of St. George's Banks in 1872 carried out by the United States Coast Survey. In 1884, Smith was elected to the National Academy of Sciences
United States National Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as "advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine." As a national academy, new members of the organization are elected annually by current members, based on their distinguished and...
.
Legacy
Smith produced more than 70 original papers. His collections are now housed in the Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale and at the National Museum of Natural HistoryNational Museum of Natural History
The National Museum of Natural History is a natural history museum administered by the Smithsonian Institution, located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., United States. Admission is free and the museum is open 364 days a year....
.
Sidney Irving Smith was honoured in the specific epithets of a number of species. They include Lembos smithi Holmes, 1905, Metapenaeopsis smithi (Schmitt, 1924), Oxyurostylis smithi Calman
William Thomas Calman
William Thomas Calman was a Scottish zoologist, specialising in the Crustacea.He was born in Dundee, studying at the High School. In the scientific societies in the city, he met D'Arcy Thompson. He later became Thompson's lab boy, which allowed him to attend lectures at University College, Dundee...
, 1912, Pandarus smithi Rathbun
Mary Rathbun
Mary J. Rathbun was an American zoologist who specialized in crustaceans. She worked at the Smithsonian Institution, often unaided, from 1884 until her death...
, 1886 and Siphonoecetes smithianus Rathbun, 1908.
Taxa named by Sidney Irving Smith include:
- Callinectes danaeCallinectes danaeCallinectes danae is a species of swimming crab. The carapace is olive-brown and up to long; the walking legs are blue. The species is common in Brazil and the West Indies....
S. I. Smith, 1869 - Cardisoma crassumCardisoma crassumThe mouthless crab, Cardisoma crassum, is a species of terrestrial crab found in the coastal tropical eastern Pacific from Baja California to Peru. It has a purplish-blue shell, red legs and white main pincer. "Cardisoma crassum is common among mangrove roots, where it builds its burrow. It also...
S. I. Smith, 1870 - EumunidaEumunidaEumunida is a genus of squat lobsters. There are 28 recognised species in the genus, the majority of which are from the Pacific Ocean:*Eumunida ampliata De Saint Laurent & Poupin, 1996*Eumunida annulosa De Saint Laurent & Macpherson, 1990...
S. I. Smith, 1883 - Eumunida pictaEumunida pictaEumunida picta is a species of squat lobster. The species is strongly associated with reefs of Lophelia pertusa, a deep-water coral, and with methane seeps. It occurs abundantly in the western Atlantic Ocean, where it is found from Massachusetts to Colombia....
S. I. Smith, 1883 - EunephropsEunephropsEunephrops is a genus of lobsters, containing four species, all found in the Western Atlantic Ocean:*Eunephrops bairdii Smith, 1885*Eunephrops cadenasi Chace, 1939*Eunephrops luckhursti Manning, 1997*Eunephrops manningi Holthuis, 1974...
S. I. Smith, 1885 - Eunephrops bairdiiEunephrops bairdiiEunephrops bairdii is a species of marine lobster, commonly called the "red lobster", endemic to the Caribbean Sea. It is found off the coasts of Colombia and Panama at depths of . It reaches a length of up to , which is equivalent to a carapace length of , but is apparently too scarce for...
S. I. Smith, 1885 - HepatellaHepatellaHepatella is a genus of crabs in the family Aethridae, containing the following species:*† Hepatella amazonica Beurlen, 1958 *Hepatella amica Smith, 1869*Hepatella peruviana Rathbun, 1933...
Smith in Verrill, 1869 - HyalellaHyalellaHyalella is a genus of amphipods, containing the following species:*Hyalella anophthalma Ruffo, 1957*Hyalella araucana Grosso & Peralta, 1999*Hyalella armata *Hyalella azteca...
S. I. Smith, 1874 - Macrobrachium ohioneMacrobrachium ohioneMacrobrachium ohione, commonly known as the Ohio shrimp or Ohio River shrimp, is a species of freshwater shrimp found in rivers throughout the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Ocean drainage basins. It is commonly used as bait for commercial fishing, especially catfish. It is the best-known of all North...
S. I. Smith, 1874 - Neomysis americana (S. I. Smith, 1873)
- Orchestia agilis S. I. Smith, 1874
- ParapaguridaeParapaguridaeParapaguridae is a family of terrestrial hermit crabs. They have gill chambers that function as lungs. Some genera, such as Bivalvopagurus and Tylaspis, do not inhabit shells...
S. I. Smith, 1882 - Polycheles sculptusPolycheles sculptusPolycheles sculptus is a species of "strange, blind crustacean". It has a cosmopolitan distribution in deep water, being found on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, in the Mediterranean Sea, and across much of the Indo-West Pacific, at depths of ....
S. I. Smith, 1880 - Uca pugnaxUca pugnaxThe Atlantic marsh fiddler crab, Uca pugnax, is a common fiddler crab of the Mid-Atlantic and northeastern United States. Marsh fiddlers dig burrows in the muddy or sandy banks of salt marshes, which they use to protect themselves from predators, high tide, and extreme temperatures, They feed by...
(S. I. Smith, 1870) - Xiphopenaeus hartii Smith, 1869