THE AMERICAN 



MONTHLY 



MICROSCOPICAL JOURNAL. 



Washington, D. C, January, 1886. 



YoL. YII. 



No. 1, 



William Benjamiii Carpenter. 



The death of the eminent physiol- 

 ogist and naturalist, William Benja- 

 min Carpenter, C. B..LL. D., AI. D., 

 F. R. S., occurred at his home in Lon- 

 don on the tenth of November. iSS^. 

 Death resulted from severe burns 

 caused by the upsetting of a lamp 

 while he was taking a vapor bath. 



Dr. Carpenter was born at Exeter, 

 England, in the year 1813. He 

 studied at University College, Lon- 

 don, and afterwards at the L^niversitv 

 of Edinburgh, where he graduated in 

 1 839. Before graduating he had pub- 

 lished an article ' On the Unity of 

 Function of Orranized Beings.' His 

 graduating thesis was entitled ' The 

 Physiological Inferences to be de- 

 duced from the structure of the 

 Nervous System of Invertebrate Ani- 

 mals.' The subject was treated in a 

 masterly manner, and thus early in 

 his career was manifested that in- 

 dependence of thought and clear per- 

 ception which have characterized all 

 his work as a teacher and a leader in 

 scientific thought. As a striking in- 

 stance of this it may be said that in 

 this thesis he first advanced the con- 

 ception of the reflex action of the 

 ganglia of the cord in articulated ani- 

 mals. This idea met with strong 

 opposition at the time, but has since 

 been universalh- adopted. 



We can but liriefly allude to some 

 of the numerous positions of honor 

 and responsibility he has ably filled. 

 Early in life he was appointed 

 Lecturer on Animal and Vegetable 

 Physiology in the Bristol Medical 

 School. In 1S44 he became Pro- 

 fessor of Phvsiologv in the Roval In- 



stitution. About this time he pro- 

 duced one of his important mono- 

 graphs, entitled 'Microscopic Re- 

 searches into the Structure of the 

 Skeleton of Invertebrate xAnimals,' 

 which was illustrated with forty 

 plates, still of great value for their 

 accuracy. In the same vear he was 

 elected to fellowship in the Roval 

 Society. In 1847 ^^^ '^^''^^ appointed 

 Lecturer on Geology in the British 

 Museum. In 1S49 he received the 

 appointment of Professor of Jurispru- 

 dence in L^^niversity College. In i S;;6 

 he became Registrar of theLhiiversitv 

 of London, a position he held until 

 1879. when he resigned. While Reg- 

 istrar of the Universitv he w^as able 

 to devote considerable time to original 

 research. 



Perhaps it may be justly said that 

 to Dr. Carpenter's etibrts and foresight 

 we are mainly indebted for our pres- 

 ent knowledge of the flora and fauna 

 of the deep sea. He stronglv urged 

 the subject of deep-sea exploration 

 upon the attention of scientific men, 

 at a time when zoologists almost uni- 

 versally believed that no life could 

 exist in the sea at considerable depths, 

 and finally succeeded in securing a 

 small vessel, the • Lightning.' in 1868, 

 to prosecute his observations. The 

 results were so unexpectedh' rich and 

 promising that the 'Porcupine' ex- 

 pedition soon followed. He also sug- 

 gested that a naturalist should ac- 

 company the north polar expedition of 

 the 'Alert' and 'Discovery' onboard 

 the store-ship ' Valorous,' and the re- 

 sults of this cruise were thereby ren- 

 dered of far greater value. He ac- 

 companied the survey ship, ' Shear- 



