538 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



SKETCH OF DR. W. B. CARPENTER. 



THE long and busy scientific life of Dr. Carpenter, the wide extent 

 and multifarious character of his researches, in which he was 

 always a leader and always advanced knowledge, the catholicity of 

 his views, the active interest he exhibited in every concern of life, his 

 lovable personal qualities, and the painful circumstances of his death, 

 have all contributed to invest the history of his career with an unusual 

 degree of interest. 



His life, as he observed to a friend less than a month before his 

 death, was one of hard work. He was for years actively engaged in 

 the drudgery of teaching ; he was always preparing and compiling 

 valuable manuals ; he was an energetic writer for, and editor of, peri- 

 odical publications ; and, we may add, he spent much time in the 

 direct service of the public and of public institutions. A sketch of 

 his life and work down to 1872 was given in the first volume of "The 

 Popular Science Monthly." But he has held so high a place, and has 

 done so much that is valuable since then, and as that biography is 

 probably not now accessible to a great many of our readers, no apology 

 need be offered for reviewing the principal features of Dr. Carpenter's 

 career, and adding, with the account of his later work, such new infor- 

 mation as is afforded by the reminiscences which are always brought 

 out by the death of a man who has played an important part. 



W1LLIA.M Benjamin Cakpenter was born in Exeter, England, Octo- 

 ber 29, 1813. His father, the Rev. Dr. Lant Carpenter, was an eminent 

 Unitarian minister, and a writer on theological subjects, who removed 

 to Bristol in 1817. Hence the son's earlier life became so identified 

 with that city that some of his biographers have said that he was born 

 there. The whole family are characterized by ability. Dr. Carpenter's 

 sister. Miss Mary Carpenter, who died a few years ago, was an eminent 

 philanthropist, whose work in relation to the treatment of prisoners, 

 and to questions affecting the well-being of the women of India, en- 

 title her, as Dr. Ray Lankester happily says, to be remembered by 

 future generations with no less gratitude than her brother. His sous 

 are men of mark in the Unitarian ministry, in literature, and in science. 



He received his earlier instruction in the school established by his 

 father at Bristol, studying the classics and the principles of physical 

 science, with a preference of taste for the latter class of studies. He 

 intended to become a civil engineer, but, no suitable opening appearing 

 in that profession, he entered upon the study of medicine, in 1828, 

 with Mr. J. B. Estlin, a brother-in-law of Dr. Pritchard, the ethnolo- 

 gist, in connection with which he attended the lectures at the Bristol 

 Medical School. In the winter of 1833 he visited the "West Indies in 

 company with Dr. Estlin, who went on a voyage for his health, to re- 



