Lewis Caleb Beck (4 October 1798

Schenectady Schenectady () is a city in Schenectady County, New York, United States, of which it is the county seat. As of the 2020 census, the city's population of 67,047 made it the state's ninth-largest city by population. The city is in eastern New Y ...

– 20 April 1853

Albany, New York Albany ( ) is the capital of the U.S. state of New York, also the seat and largest city of Albany County. Albany is on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River, and about north of New York C ...

) was an American

physician A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

, botanist,

chemist A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a scientist trained in the study of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties. Chemists carefully describe t ...

, and

mineralogist Mineralogy is a subject of geology specializing in the scientific study of the chemistry, crystal structure, and physical (including optical) properties of minerals and mineralized artifacts. Specific studies within mineralogy include the proce ...

Biography

He graduated from

Union College Union College is a private liberal arts college in Schenectady, New York. Founded in 1795, it was the first institution of higher learning chartered by the New York State Board of Regents, and second in the state of New York, after Columbia Co ...

in 1815 with a

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Th ...

. He then studied

medicine Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care pr ...

, and began his practice in Schenectady in 1818. From 1820 to 1821, he resided in

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

, but soon returned and settled in Albany. Beck was successively professor of botany in the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (1824–1829), professor of botany and chemistry in the Vermont Academy of Medicine (1826–1832), professor of chemistry and natural history at

Rutgers College Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College, and was ...

(1830–1837 and 1838–1853), and professor of chemistry and pharmacy at

Albany Medical College Albany Medical College (AMC) is a private medical school in Albany, New York. It was founded in 1839 by Alden March and James H. Armsby and is one of the oldest medical schools in the nation. The college is part of the Albany Medical Center, whi ...

(1841–1853). He also delivered a course of chemistry lectures at Middlebury College in 1827. Beck was the author of a number of books and papers on botany and chemistry, and also of an elaborate report on the mineralogy of New York, based upon his researches as mineralogist (appointed 1836) of the New York Geological Survey of 1835–1841, which was published as one of the volumes of the ''Natural History of the State of New York'' (1842). This latter work was probably his most important contribution to scientific literature. Other works included ''A Gazetteer of Illinois and Missouri'' (1823), ''An Account of the Salt Springs at Salina'' (1826), ''A Manual of Chemistry'' (1831), ''On Adulterations'' (New York, 1846), and ''Botany of the United States North of Virginia'' (1848).

Family

His brother Theodric Romeyn Beck authored the first significant American book on forensic medicine, to which another brother, John Brodhead Beck, also contributed.

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Biography

Family

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Further reading