He graduated from
Harvard in 1840, and got a medical degree there in 1843. At Harvard, he received the Boylston Prize for his thesis on “Contagiousness of Puerperal Fever,” and again, in 1844, for his essay on “Hydrotherapy.” Subsequently he spent two years in professional studies in
Paris, and then began the practice of his profession in Boston, meanwhile serving as demonstrator of anatomy in
Harvard Medical School 1845-1847, and serving as physician to the Boston Dispensary. He then passed some time in
Brazil, and also visited the
Lake Superior copper region. During the
American Civil War, he entered the army as acting assistant surgeon from Massachusetts, and was assigned to duty with General
Ambrose Burnside. He accompanied the expedition to
New Bern, North Carolina, in March 1862, and after its capture was assigned to duty at the Craven Street Hospital there, and at the hospital in
Beaufort, North Carolina. In October 1862, he was commissioned surgeon of the
45th Massachusetts Regiment, and served in that capacity in New Bern until the regiment was discharged in July 1863. He then entered the corps of surgeons of volunteers, and was placed in charge, successively, of the university hospital in
New Orleans, and of the marine hospital in
Mobile. In 1866, he was mustered out of the service with the brevet rank of lieutenant colonel. He returned to Boston, and became associated in the work of the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he held the office of instructor 1867-1869, and then professor of
zoology and
physiology 1869-1878, also acting as secretary of the corporation in 1866-1878, and as secretary of the faculty 1871-1878. In 1878, Kneeland returned to literary work and lecturing, in Boston and later the
Philippine Islands. He traveled extensively in search of information concerning
earthquakes and
volcanic phenomena, making visits to the
Hawaiian Islands and to
Iceland in 1874, at the time of its millennial celebration, for this purpose. He was a member of numerous scientific societies, and held the office of secretary to the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and to the
Boston Society of Natural History. ==Polygenism==