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Gideon B. Smith (1793 – March 24, 1867) was an American physician and amateur entomologist who studied the breeding biology of the 17-year cicada. He was a friend and physician of John James Audubon who named a bird as "Smith's Lark Bunting", now known as Smith's longspur (Calcarius pictus). Smith was also involved in sericulture and patented inventions in the field.

Smith was born in Maryland and received an MD from the University of Maryland in 1840 with a thesis Cholera Infantum. While studying he was also involved in assisting John Stuart Skinner, the editor of The American Farmer and in 1830 he became its editor, serving for three years. During this time he took an interest in sericulture and wrote a pamphlet on raising silkworms. From 1839 to 1840 he edited the Journal of the American Silk Association. He invented a silk reel which he patented and sold. As a friend and physician to John James Audubon, he helped sell subscriptions for Audubon's book. Audubon named a species of bird as Smith’s Lark-Bunting or Plectrophanes Smithii but this had already been described as Calcarius pictus by Swainson. The English name of Smith’s longspur continues to be used. In 1848 he was reported to the Board of Medical Examiners for unprofessional conduct resulting in the end of his medical career.

Smith studied cicadas with physician Nathaniel Potter (1770–1843, he helped found the Maryland college of medicine in 1807) who had first seen the 17-year cicadas in 1783 and was examining them again in 1817. Potter sought the continued study of the cicadas and Smith took it up. In a local newspaper, The Sun, Smith wrote on February 1, 1851 prediction the emergence of seventeen year locusts in Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Delaware.

Smith married Elizabeth Bennett in 1826 and they had a daughter. After the death of Elisabeth in 1832, he married Susan Stewart in 1833. He is buried in Mount Olivet Cemetery, Baltimore.

References

1. Gifford, George E.; Gifford, Laura T. (1961). "John James Audubon and Gideon B. Smith, M. D." Bulletin of the History of Medicine. 35 (5): 475–477. ISSN 0007-5140.
2. ^ Kritsky, Gene (2020-12-11). "Gideon B. Smith: America's Forgotten Entomologist". American Entomologist. 66 (4): 48–53. doi:10.1093/ae/tmaa054. ISSN 1046-2821.
3. Wink, Tara (2021). "Dr. Gideon B. Smith, UMSOM Class of 1840: 17-Year Cicada Expert". University of Maryland. Health Sciences & Human Services Library.
4. Smith, Gideon B. (1851). "The American Locust "Cicada Septemdecim"". Scientific American. 6 (27): 212–212. ISSN 0036-8733.

• 1793 births
• 1867 deaths
• American physicians