iv 



of Charles Darwin. Taking the " Principles " in some way as his 

 model, Dr. Carpenter produced in 1839 his first systematic work, 

 under the title " Principles of General and Comparative Physiology, 

 intended as an Introduction to the Study of Human Physiology and 

 as a guide to the Philosophical Pursuit of Natural History." Admir- 

 able as was the execution of this work in many ways, its great merit 

 lay in the conception of its scope. It was in fact the first attempt to 

 recognise and lay down the lines of a science of "Biology "in an 

 educational form. Carpenter's " Comparative Physiology " is the 

 general or elementary "Biology" of the present day — traced neces- 

 sarily upon the less secure foundations which the era of its production 

 permitted, viz., one year only subsequent to the date of Schwann's 

 immortal " Microscopical Researches." 



For five years Dr. Carpenter remained in Bristol, commencing 

 medical practice and marrying in 1840 ; but in 1844, feeling a distaste 

 for the profession of medicine, he moved to London in order to devote 

 himself entirely to a literary and scientific career. He was encouraged 

 to take this step by the success which his " Comparative Physiology " 

 obtained, a second edition having been called for within two years of 

 the publication of the first. He was appointed Fullerian Professor of 

 Physiology in the Royal Institution during his first year in London, 

 and Professor and Lecturer at University College and at the London 

 Hospital, whilst he was also elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. 



In 1851 Dr. Carpenter became Principal of University Hall, the 

 residential institution attached to University College, where he 

 remained until 1859. During this period he remodelled his treatise 

 on Physiology, issuing the more general biological portion as "Com- 

 parative Physiology," whilst that portion dealing with the special 

 physiology of man and the higher animals appeared as his well-known 

 " Human Physiology," which subsequently ran through many editions. 

 The " Human Physiology " is remarkable in the first place for the 

 chapters on the physiology of the nervous system, and especially for 

 the theories enunciated with regard to the relations of mind and brain, 

 and the attempt to assign particular activities to particular portions of 

 the cerebral structure. In arriving at his conclusions Dr. Carpenter 

 had to depend on arguments drawn from the facts of comparative 

 anatomy and of diseased or abnormal conditions in man. There is no 

 doubt at the present day of the acuteness which he displayed in his 

 treatment of the subject, and of the truth in a general way of the 

 results which he formulated. Experiment and a wider range of 

 observation have to some extent corrected — but on the whole rather ex- 

 tended and confirmed — the doctrines of the early editions of the "Human 

 Physiology " in regard to this subject, so that he was able only a few 

 years since to separate this portion of the work and issue it as a 

 separate book, the " Mental Physiology," in which is contained by far 



