William Benjamin Carpenter

William Benjamin Carpenter

William Benjamin Carpenter (born October 29, 1813 in Exeter , † November 19, 1885 in London ) was an English physiologist and naturalist.

Carpenter studied medicine at University College London and the University of Edinburgh , where he received his doctorate in 1839 with the work The Physiological Inferences to be Deduced from the Structure of the Nervous System of Invertebrated Animals .

Carpenter was first known through his manual "Principles of General and Comparative Physiology" (1839), in which he first designed a teaching system for a general biology. In 1844 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society . In 1845 he became a Fullerian professor of physiology at the Royal Institution . In 1847 he was examinator of physiology and comparative anatomy at the University of London, in 1849 professor of forensic medicine at University College and finally in 1856 registrar at the university. Since 1873 he was a corresponding member of the Académie des Sciences and since 1875 a foreign member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences .

In London he carried out microscopic studies of shell construction and structure as well as the systematics of foraminifera (monograph 1862). In the zoological station in Naples he examined the structure of the hair stars. In addition to physiological studies, he carried out deep-sea research from 1868. Among other things, he organized the Challenger Expedition (1872–1876). Carpenter was involved in the discussion about the pseudofossil " Eozoon canadense ".

Carpenter first described the ideomotor effect, called the Carpenter effect, for the first time in 1852 (see also Ideo-Realgesetz ). In 1853 he proposed the “sensory ganglion” ( thalamus ) as the seat of consciousness.

Works

• Popular cyclopædia of natural science (3 volumes, London, 1843).
• Principles of General and Comparitive Physiology, (London 1839, 4th ed. 1854)
• Principles of human physiology (1846, 9th ed. 1882)
• Animal physiology (Wm. S. Orr and Co., London, 1848).
• Vegetable physiology and botany; including the structure and organs of plants, their characters, uses, geographical distribution and classification, according to the Natural System (Wm. S. Orr and Co., London, 1847).
• On the Use and Abuse of Alcoholic Liquors, in Health and Disease. Prize essay (John Churchill, London, 1850).
• Mechanical Philosophy, Horology, and Astronomy (London, 1857).
• Manual of physiology (4th ed. 1865)
• The Microscope and its Revelations (1856, 6th ed. 1881)
• Zoology. A Systematic Account of the General Structure, Habits, Instincts and Uses of the Principal Families of the Animal Kingdom, (London 1857)
• Together with Thomas Rupert Jones (1819–1911) and William Kitchen Parker (1823–1890): Introduction to the study of the Foraminifera . (London, 1862).
• With Charles Wyville Thomson and John Gwyn Jeffreys (1809–1885): The Depths of the Sea. An account of the general results of the dredging cruises of HMSS. “Porcupine” and “Lightning” during the Summers of 1868, 1869, and 1870 (London, 1873).
• Principles of Mental Physiology (1874, 6th ed. 1881)

literature

• Erwin J. Hentschel, Günther H. Wagner: Dictionary of Zoology, 7th edition, Munich 2004, page 131, there the article "Carpenter, William Benjamin"
• VM Hall: The contribution of the physiologist, William Benjamin Carpenter (1813–1885), on the development of the principles of the correlation of forces and the conservation of energy . In: Med Hist. 23, No. 2, 1979, pp. 129-155.
• Olaf Breidbach : The materialization of the ego: on the history of brain research in the 19th and 20th centuries . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1997. Chap. 6.4: William B. Carpenter - The brain, a telegraph system? , Pp. 160-165.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Compare Hentschel, Wagner, page 131, article "Carpenter, William Benjamin"
2. ^ Directory of members since 1666: letter B. Académie des sciences, accessed on February 8, 2020 (French). 
3. ^ Member entry by Willian Benjamin Carpenter (with a link to an obituary) at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences , accessed on January 13, 2017.
4. ↑ Compare Hentschel, Wagner, page 131, article "Carpenter, William Benjamin"