William Benjamin Carpenter. 307 



professional authorship claimed for a time his whole 

 energies, and his strictly scientific investigations afterwards 

 referred to the study of the minute shells of the Mollusca, 

 as well as of the Protozoic Foraminifera — all of which 

 culminated in those deep-sea researches with which his 

 name was to become famous. But in other ways Carpenter 

 cemented his connection with this Society. On more than 

 one occasion he rendered efifective assistance to the late 

 Professor Balfour in Arran, where he visited every summer, 

 and with whom he kept up a life-long intimacy. A visit 

 to the Botanic Gardens was regularly made during his runs 

 to Edinburgh, and personal intercourse with old college 

 companions helped to keep burning his scientific enthu- 

 siasm. 



Carpenter's London literary and scientific career began 

 in 1843. Its results were chiefly manifest in successive 

 editions and amplifications of his works on human and 

 comparative physiology. His Mental Physiology, published 

 in 1874, had perhaps the greatest popularity amongst 

 general students. The Microscope and its Revelations 

 reached a sixth edition in 1881. His papers on the 

 " Foraminifera," in the Philosophical Transactions^ as well 

 as a richly illustrated monograph, published by the Ray 

 Society in 1862, are perhaps the most severely scientific of 

 his writings. 



Dr Carpenter became Fullerian Professor of Physiology 

 in the Royal Institution during his first year of London 

 life. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 

 1844, receiving in 1861 the council's gold medal for 

 contributions to physiological science. He subsequently 

 became Professor of Medical Jurisprudence in University 

 College, Lecturer on General Anatomy and Physiology at 

 the London Hospital School of i\Iedicine, and Examiner in 

 Physiology and Comparative Anatomy in the University of 

 London. From 1851 to 1859 Dr Carpenter was Principal 

 of University Hall, the residential institution attached to 

 University College. In 1856 he was appointed Registrar 

 of the University, which enabled him to resign such onerous 

 positions, and to give more time to original investigations. 

 He now commenced, during holidays at Arran and else- 

 where, those researches on the structure and development 



