WILLIAM

See also:

• BENJAMIN
• BENJAMIN, JUDAHPHILIP (1811-1884)

BENJAMIN

See also:

• CARPENTER, LANT (1780-1840)
• CARPENTER, MIRY (1807-1877)
• WILLIAM BENJAMIN CARPENTER (1813-1885)

CARPENTER (1813-1885)  , English physiologist and naturalist, was born at Exeter on the 29th of October 1813 . He was the eldest son of Dr Lant Carpenter . He attended medical classes at University College, London, and then went to Edinburgh, where he took the degree of M.D. in 1839 . The subject of his graduation thesis, " The Physiological Inferences to be Deduced from the Structure of the Nervous System of Invertebrated Animals," indicates a line of research which had fruition in his Principles of General and Comparative Physiology . His work in comparative neurology was recognized in 1844 by his election to the Royal Society, which awarded him a Royal medal in 1861; and his appointment as Fullerian professor of physiology in the Royal Institution in 1845 enabled him to exhibit his powers as a teacher and lecturer, his gift of ready speech and luminous interpretation placing him in the front rank of exponents, at a time when the popularization of science was in its infancy . His manifold labours as investigator, author, editor, demonstrator and lecturer knew no cessation through life; but in assessing the value of his work, prominence should be given to his researches in marine zoology, notably in the lower organisms, as Foraminifera and Crinoids . These researches gave an impetus to deep-sea exploration, an outcome of which was in . 1868 the " Lightning," and later the more famous " Challenger," expedition . He took a keen and laborious interest in the evidence adduced by Canadian geologists as to the organic nature of the so-called Eozoon Canadense, discovered in the Laurentian strata, and at the time of his death had nearly finished a monograph on the subject, defending the now discredited theory of its animal origin . He was an adept in the use, of the microscope, and his popular treatise on The Microscope and its Revelations (1856) has stimulated a host of observers to the use of the " added sense " with which it has endowed man . In 1856 Carpenter became registrar of the university of London, and held the office for twenty-three years; on his resignation in 1879 he was made a C.B. in 'recognition of his services to education generally . Biologist as he was, Carpenter nevertheless made reservations as to the extension of the doctrine of evolution to man's intellectual and spiritual nature .

In his Principles of

Mental Physiology he asserted both the freedom of the will and the existence of the " Ego," and one of his last public engagements was the reading of a paper in support of miracles . He died in London, from injuries occasioned by the accidental upsetting of a spirit-lamp, on the 19th of November 1885 .