Edwin Lincoln Moseley

Edwin Lincoln Moseley (March 29, 1865 – June 6, 1948) was an American naturalist, known for his work covering milk sickness and dendrochronology.

Edwin Lincoln Moseley
Photograph of Edwin Lincoln Moseley
Photograph of Edwin Lincoln Moseley from the 1918 "BeeGee"
Born(1865-03-29)March 29, 1865[1][2]
Union City, Michigan, US[1]
DiedJune 6, 1948(1948-06-06) (aged 92)[1][2]
Johnston Hospital, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, Ohio, US[3]
Resting placeOak Grove Cemetery, Bowling Green, Ohio[4][5]
CitizenshipAmerican
Alma materUniversity of Michigan, Master of Arts 1885[1]
Known forStudy of Milk sickness,[1][6] Writings on the 90.4 year tree ring cycle.[2][1]
AwardsFellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science,[7] 1902[8]
Scientific career
FieldsAstronomy, Botany, Climatology, Dendrology, Geology, Zoology[1]
InstitutionsSandusky High School, Bowling Green State University[1]

Biography

Early life and education

Moseley was born in 1865 in Union City Michigan, to a prohibitionist father, and a mother who was one of the first white children born on Hawaii.[9] He was the maternal grandson of Hiram Bingham I and Sybil Moseley Bingham.[1] He was a descendant of Myles Standish.[9]

He attended Union City High School, graduating in 1880, and attending a year of post graduation studies there before he was admitted to the University of Michigan, where he earned his masters of Arts in 1885.[1][10] He paid for his education mostly through his own work, with the exception of $150 he was gifted from family.[10]

Career
Members of Joseph Steere's 1887 Scientific Expedition

From 1885 to 1887 Moseley taught in Grand Rapids, Michigan.[10]

A Female Chalcophaps indica collected by Moseley in 1887.

Edwin Moseley was among the members of Joseph Steere's 1887 Scientific Expedition to areas in the Philippines, Hawaii, Japan, and China.[1][4]

Moseley became a teacher at Sandusky High School in Sandusky, Ohio in 1889, where following a tour of European museums in 1890, he founded a natural history museum at the school in January 1891.[1]

Between 1901 and 1904 he and 100 of his students surveyed the Sandusky Bay by probing the bed with Augers during the winter, and recording the amount of glacial till unearthed.[1]

In 1905 Mosley conducted experiments on school animals including cats, a dog, rabbits, and sheep by feeding them food including Eupatorium rugosum then published and disseminated how it caused milk sickness in a formal paper presented to the Ohio Academy of Sciences that year, with his work in this area being valued by Charles C. Deam.[1][6][11][12] A 1919 article in The Journal of Infectious Diseases identified this as the first organized systematic experiment conducted on the issue.[11][12]

In 1914 Moseley became one of the first faculty at Bowling Green Normal College, where he served as head of the Biology Department until retirement in 1936.[13]

During his retirement Moseley wrote about a link between solar events and dendrochronology.[1] His work in weather forecasting was recognized by the New York Times.[14][4]

The 1940s saw Mosley pursue research into solar phenomenon and how it affected natural systems, as in 1941 Moseley published "Sun-spots and Tree Rings"[15] and in October 1942 when Mosley published "Solar Influence on Variations in Rainfall in the Interior of the United States".[16]

In 1943 Mosley was awarded a Doctorate of Humane Letters by Bowling Green State University.[1][17]

On April 28, 1948, in Dayton, Ohio, Moseley became ill; later dying on June 6, 1948, to coronary thrombosis.[4] His will dedicated his estate, worth between $50,000 and $100,000 at the time of death, to create scholarships for students.[3]

Publications
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Moseley wrote Trees, Stars, and Birds, which was published in 1920 and featured illustrations by Louis Agassiz Fuertes.[18]

Moseley wrote Other Worlds, a book on Astronomy published by The Appleton Century Company.[19] The book was praised in a 1933 review published by the New York Times for its clear presentation of subject matter.[19] The book was criticized by James Stokley in The Journal of the Franklin Institute for containing a number of inaccuracies known at the time.[20] The book grew out of an earlier article published in Scientific American, which speculated on the possibility of extraterrestrial life.[21]

Personal life

Moseley abstained from a number of substances, believing alcohol, tobacco, caffeine, and opium to be particularly harmful.[22] He also publicly admonished students working in chemistry labs for gaining a chloroform habit.[22]

Moseley had a number of frugal habits, such as making tomato soup from ketchup and hot water.[9] He was known to avoid buying new clothes, and frequently wore a single blue suit made of serge that had received so much wear the fabric had become shiny.[1]

During World War II, Moseley served as a local representative of the Russian War Relief agency in Bowling Green, Ohio, and solicited donations for Russian war refugees.[23]

Moseley promoted the conservation of barn owls.[24]

References
  1. Niederhofer, Relda (1988). "Edwin Lincoln Moseley: An Internationally Known Naturalist". Bartonia (54): 74–82. JSTOR 41609962.
  2. C. F. B (1949). "Edwin Lincoln Moseley, 1865–1948". Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society. 30 (10): 362. JSTOR 26258262.
  3. "Dr. Mosely's Will Is Filed". Bee Gee News. 16 June 1948. Retrieved 28 August 2020.
  4. Tas, m a (7 June 1948). "Dr. Edwin Moseley, Weather Authority". The New York Times. Retrieved 26 August 2020.
  5. "Career Ends". Bee Gee News. 9 June 1948. Retrieved 28 August 2020.
  6. Hill, Taryn (1 December 2014). "The American Plague: Milk Sickness and the Trans-Appalachian West, 1810–1930". Theses.
  7. "DR. WILLIAMS LAUDS MOSELEY". Bee Gee News. 31 March 1937. Retrieved 28 August 2020.
  8. "Historic Fellows | American Association for the Advancement of Science". www.aaas.org. Retrieved 28 August 2020.
  9. "Moseley contributed more than funds to BGSU". BG News (Student Newspaper). No. The BG News October 23, 1984. BG News. 23 October 1984. Retrieved 1 September 2020.
  10. "Professor Emeritus of Biology". Bee Gee News. 31 March 1937. Retrieved 28 August 2020.
  11. Sackett, Walter George (1919). The Connection of Milksickness with the Poisonous Qualities of White Snakeroot. University of Chicago Libraries. Retrieved 28 August 2020.
  12. Sackett, Walter (1 March 1919). "The Connection of Milksickness with the Poisonous Qualities of White Snake-Root (Eupatorium Urticaefolium)". The Journal of Infectious Diseases. 24 (3): 231–259. doi:10.1093/infdis/24.3.231. Retrieved 28 August 2020.
  13. "MS 87 – Edwin Lincoln Moseley Papers". lib.bgsu.edu. Retrieved 27 August 2020.
  14. "Weather, Past and to Come". The New York Times. 10 August 1939. Retrieved 28 August 2020.
  15. Moseley, Edwin (1941). "Sun-spots and Tree Rings". Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. 35: 376. Bibcode:1941JRASC..35..376M. Retrieved 8 February 2022.
  16. Edwin, Moseley (1942). "Solar Influence on Variations in Rainfall in the Interior of the United States". Popular Astronomy. 50: 419. Bibcode:1942PA.....50..419M. Retrieved 8 February 2022.
  17. "America Expects 6 Things Of Graduates, Bishop Tells 87 Receiving Degrees". BG News (Student Newspaper). No. Bee Gee News August 18, 1943. 18 August 1943. Retrieved 7 December 2020.
  18. Moseley, Edwin. Trees, stars and birds :a book of outdoor science /. Yonkers-on-Hudson, N.Y. Retrieved 10 September 2020.
  19. "Primers to the Stars; OTHER WORLDS. By Edwin Lin- coln Moseley. Illustrated. 231 pp. Appleton New World of Science Series. New York: D. Appleton Century Company. $2. THE SPANGLED HEAVENS: An Introduction to Astronomy. By Lawrence Edwards. Foreword by F.W. Dyson, the Astronomer Royal. Introduction by Cecil Grant. Illustrated. 115 pp. Phila- delphia: J.B. Lippincott Com- pany. $1.25". The New York Times. 18 June 1933. Retrieved 28 August 2020.
  20. Stokley, James (August 1933). "Other worlds". Journal of the Franklin Institute. 216 (2): 283–284. doi:10.1016/S0016-0032(33)91157-6. ISSN 0016-0032.
  21. "PROF. MOSELEY AUTHORS ANOTHER BOOK ON POSSIBLE LIFE ON OTHER PLANETS". Bee Gee News. 9 November 1932. Retrieved 28 August 2020.
  22. Moseley, Edwin (23 January 1925). "The Use of Poisons". Bee Gee News. Retrieved 28 August 2020.
  23. "Russian War Relief Seeks Donations". Bee Gee News. 6 October 1943. Retrieved 28 August 2020.
  24. "'Protect the Barn Owl,' Noted Biologist Pleads". Bee Gee News. 26 June 1946. Retrieved 28 August 2020.
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