American missionary, born at Kinderhook, NY, on the 13th of August 1818. He graduated at Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, and was sent by the American Board of Foreign Missions to Syria in 1840. He was ordained by the members of the Syrian mission in 1846, and in 1848 was made principal of the missionary seminary. In 1857, on the death of Rev. Dr. Eli Smith, Dr. Van Dyck took charge of the mission press and also of the translation of the Bible into Arabic. On his visit to New York to superintend the printing of this work by the American Bible Society in 1806–67, Dr. Van Dyck taught Hebrew in the Union Theological Seminary. After his return to Beirut he resumed his duties in connection with the mission press and was also physician to St. John’s Hospital and professor of pathology in the Syrian Protestant College until 1882. He has since been physician to St. George’s hospital. He has edited in Arabic several mathematical and physical textbooks, and also translated the Westminster Shorter Catechism, Schömberg-Cotta Family, and treatises of various kinds.
