KIRTLAND, JARED POTTER, La.u., 1793-1877; b. Conn. Educated by his uncle, a distinguished physician, he early showed a disposition for analytical research. 'When a boy of 16 his study of botany led him to experiments in the cross-fertilization of flowers for the artificial production of new varieties of fruit, and his study of insect life was so minute that he was one of the first to discover the hermaphrodite character of the female silkworm, which led to the study of the metamorphosis of insects. In 1810 his father moved to Ohio and these studies were interrupted; but he taught school, and became an accomplished botanist. In 1811, his uncle having bequeathed him his library in Wallingford, and money to complete an education, young Kirtland went to the medical school of Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1815. In 1818 he removed to Ohio to practice his profession, taking a high position in it, but always better known by his scientific attainments. In 1828, in the Ohio legislature, he led the reform movement that changed the discipline of penitentiaries. From 1837 to 1842 he was professor of medicine in the
Ohio medical college of Cincinnati, and afterwards for many years filled similar positions in the Willoughby and Western Reserve medical colleges of northern Ohio. In the first geological survey of Ohio in 1848 he was engaged on the natural history department.. The range of Dr. Kirtland's investigations was great, though he has not left by author ship such monuments of his scientific industry as might have been expected, In 1834 he discovered and announced the existence of distinct sexes among the naiades. His contributions to our knowledge of the honey-bee have been great and.form the basis of much that has been written by others. In the cross-fertilization of fruits his boyish experiments, continued through life, were in part so practically successful that several of the most valuable varieties of cherries now in cultivation in this country and Europe were originated under his hand. He died in Cleveland, Ohio.