Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Garman, Samuel

GARMAN, Samuel, naturalist, b. in Indiana county, Pa., 5 June, 1846. He was graduated at the Illinois state normal university in 1870, and for the following year was principal of the Mississippi state normal school. In 1871 he became professor of natural sciences in Ferry Hall seminary, Lake Forest, Ill., and a year later became a special pupil of Louis Agassiz in natural history. He was appointed in 1873 assistant in herpetology and ichthyology in the museum of comparative zoology in Cambridge, and still holds that office. In connection with his work he has made various explorations to South and Central America, and also geological expeditions to the Rocky and Sierra Nevada mountains. He is a member of scientific societies in the United States and Europe, and has been president of the Boston scientific society. His publications, besides many monographs on the nomenclature, anatomy, classification of new species of fishes, selachians, batrachians, reptiles, and similar topics, include “The Reptiles and Batrachians of North America” (Cambridge, 1883); “Check List of the North American Reptiles and Batrachians” (Salem, 1884); “The Reptiles of Bermuda” (Washington, 1884); and “A Living Species of Cladodont Shark” (Cambridge, 1885).