C A M P E K. 



Camper, na pendant lon4emt 40w esprit tie toutc application 

 aux sciences. To relieve hi mind from the pressure 

 of affliction, he made a tour through the county of 

 Bentheim, the duchy of Clevcs, and Brabant. The 

 paintings of Rubens, Vandyke, and the other great 

 masters of the Flemish school, which he found at 

 Antwerp and Brussels, fixed his attention for a while 

 in these cities, and afforded him some moments of 

 relaxation ; and, in the following summer, he went 

 to Paris, where he was delighted with the society of 

 Franklin, Marmontel, Diderot, &c. He afterwards 

 visited some of the principal cities in Germany, and 

 associated with the most celebrated authors of that 

 country. At Potsdam he was presented to Frederic 

 the Great, who received him with great affability 

 and respect ; and, on his return, he had the honour 

 of spending two days with his brother, Prince Henry 

 of Prussia, at Rhynsberg. The researches of Cam- 

 per were now chiefly directed to natural history ; 

 and every year added to his fame as an author and a 

 philosopher. His studies, however, important and 

 multiplied as they were, did not prevent him from 

 taking a part in the public affairs of his country. 

 He was twice elected a representative in the assem- 

 bly of the province of Fnesland ; and, in 1783, he 

 was appointed counsellor of the city of Workum, 

 which entitled him to a seat in the college of the ad- 

 mir-ilty of Fnesland. In 1787> he was nominated 

 one of the council of the state, which obliged him 

 to remove his place of residence to the Hague, and 

 where he continued till his death, which was occa- 

 sioned by a violent pleurisy, on the 7th of April 

 1789. His body was deposited in the tomb of his 

 ancestors, in the church of St Peter at Leyden. 



The writings of Camper contain many important 

 discoveries both in medicine and in natural history ; 

 and though he has published no work of consider- 

 able magnitude, yet, in the various memoirs which 

 he has presented to the different learned societies 

 with which he was connected, he displays great 

 strength of reasoning and aptness of illustration. As 

 he derived his knowledge more from observation than 

 from books, he was always furnished with a multi- 

 plicity of facts to bring in support of his positions ; 

 and the clearness of his expressions and illustra- 

 tions arose from the abundance of his resources. 

 Camper was personally acquainted with the most 

 celebrated authors of the age, and had been instruct- 

 ed by their conversation as well as by their works. 

 It was his constant practice, while travelling, to keep 

 a journal, in which he recorded every thing which 

 he either heard or saw that was worthy of being 

 known ; the appearance and nature of the country, 

 and the systems, projects, and errors, both of philo- 

 sophers and artists. He took drawings of every 

 rare object in anatomy or natural history which he 

 met with ; and some of his journals contain a variety 

 of useful and curious observations on agriculture, 

 manufactures, and the form and composition of moun- 

 tains. 



Camper wrote upon every subject of medicine or 



surgery which was under public discussion during 

 his time ; and carried off the prize on several ques- 

 tions proposed by some of the learned societies on 

 the Continent. He was also a member of many of 

 those societies ; and their memoiu were enriched by 

 his valuable communications. Besides bis Demon- 

 strationct Anatomico Pathologicte, of which two 

 parts only appeared, the one containing the struc- 

 ture and diseases of the human arm, the other the 

 structure and diseases of the human pelvis, he pub- 

 lished separate dissertations upon the following sub- 

 jects : " On the cause of hernia in new-born chil- 

 dren," ' on the sense of hearing in fishes," 

 " on the physical education of children," upon ino- 

 culation for the small pox," " upon the origin and 

 colour of the negroes," " on the signs of fife and 

 death in new born children," "on infanticide, with 

 a project for the establishment of a foundling hos- 

 pital," " on the causes of infanticide and suicide," 

 " on the intromission of air into the lungs of new- 

 born children,"" on the operation of lithotomy at 

 two different times, according to the celebrated 

 Franco," " on ulcers in the urethra, &c." " up- 

 on the orang-outang and other kinds of apes," 

 " upon cancers," " upon lameness in infants," 

 " upon lithotomy," " upon the classification of 

 fishes according to the system of Linnaeus," 

 and upon the fracture of the patella and olecra- 

 non." He also presented the following memoirs 

 to different societies ; viz. " Upon the callus of frac- 

 tured bones," " upon the advantages and best me- 

 thods of inoculation for the small-pox,"" upon the 

 theory and treatment of chronical diseases of the 

 lungs, &c." " upon the construction of bandages 

 for hernia, and the best method of tempering steel 

 used for these instruments,"" upon the structure 

 of the great bones of birds, and the manner in which 

 atmospherical air is introduced into them," * " up- 

 on the cure of ulcers," " upon the characteristic 

 marks of countenance in persons of various coun- 

 tries and ages," which was afterwards published by 

 his son'in quarto, in 1791, and followed by the de- 

 scription of a method of delineating various sorts of 

 heads with accuracy, fl upon the discovery of the 

 glands in the interior of the sternum," " upon con- 

 tagious diseases among cattle," " upon specific re- 

 medies," " upon the effects of air, sleep, &c. in the 

 cure of surgical disorders," " upon the nature, treat- 

 ment, &c. of dropsy," " upon physical beauty," 

 " upon the question, Why is man exposed to more 

 diseases than other animals ?" and " upon the fossil 

 bones of unknown and rare animals." 



After his death, his son, M. Adrian Giles Cam- 

 per, published in 1792 a sequel to his Treatise on 

 the natural difference of Features," &c. entitled, 

 " Lectures of the late Peter Camper on the manner 

 of delineating the different emotions of mind in the 

 Countenance ; on the striking resemblance between 

 Quadrupeds, Fowls, Fishes, and the Human Spe- 

 cies ; and on the constituent Beauty of Form." 

 In the year 1803 a collection of his works appear- 



The discovery of this curious structure was 6rst made by Camper in 1771. It has, however, bten claimed by M. Hun- 

 ter of London ; but with what justice, it is difficult to conceive, as that gentleman's paper upon this sufcicct *v*$ not read te 

 the Royal Society until Feb. 1774s 



