CAMPER, PETER, a physician and anatomist, was born at Leyden on the 11th of May 1722. His father, Florent Camper, was a clergy man, who numbered among his friends Boerhaave, 'sOravesande, Musschenbroeck, and Moor ; and in the society of these celebrated men Camper imbibed his strong love of science and the fine arts. He was instructed iu drawing by Moor, and in geometry by Labordes. On entering the university of Leyden he devoted himself to the study of medicine, under Gaubius, Van Rooyen, the elder Albinus, and Trioen, under whom he soon rose to distinction ; and when he took Isis degree of doctor in philosophy and medicine in 1746, he published two dissertations,—the one 'De Visu,' the other 'Do Genii quibusdam partibus, which have been much praised by Baldinger. In 1748 he visited London, where he spent nearly twelve months, associating with Mead, Pringle, and Pitcairn; and where his taste for natural history was awakened by the cabinets of Sir Hans Sloane and Cannon, and the collections of Hill and Cateaby. He subsequently successively occupied the chairs of philosophy, anatomy, surgery, and medicine in the universities of Franeker, Amsterdam, and Groningen. When entering upon these professorships he delivered introductory lectures, which were remarkable for the comprehensive knowledge which they evinced in physics, medicine, and anatomy, as well as for an uncommon talent of observation. He obtained a prize from the Academy of Sciences in 1772, and an accessit in 1776; a prize from the Academy of Dijon in 1779 ; from that of Lyon in 1773, and that of Toulouse in 1774; and from the societies of Haarlem and Edinburgh, and the academy of surgery. He was a member of the Academies of Berlin and St. Petersburg, and of the Royal Societies of London and Gottingen; and in 1785 was made a foreign associate of the Academy of Sciences at Paris, being the only Dutchman, except Boerhaave, who heel attained that honour. Ile was also a member of the state-council of the United Provinces, and a deputy in the assembly of the States of the Province of Friesland. lie died of a violent pleurisy on the 7th of April 1789, in the sixty-seventh year of his age, leaving behind him the well-earned reputation not only of a dis tinguished anatomist and philosopher, but of an honest man.
The works, or rather detached essays of Camper, are exceedingly numerous. Besides his Demonstrationes Anatomico-pathologicse; of which two parts only appeared, the one containing the structure and diseases of the human arm, the other the structure and diseases of the human pelvis, he published separate dissertations upon the fol lowing among other subjects :—on the Sense of Hearing in Fishes;' on the 'Physical Education of Children ;' on 'Inoculation for the Small-pox;' on the 'Origin and Colour of Negroes;' on the 'Signs of Life and Death iu new-born Children;' on 'Infanticide, with a project for the Establishment of a Foundling Hospital;' on the `Operation of Lithotomy at two different times according to the celebrated Franco;' &c. He also presented the following memoirs to
different societies : on the Callus of Fractured Bones ;' on the ' Advantages and best Methods of Inoculating for the Small-pox ; ' on the 'Theory and Treatment of Chronic Diseases of the Lungs,' &c. ; on the Construction of Trusses, and the best method of tempering steel for these instruments;' on the 'Structure of the great bones of Birds, and the manner in which atmospheric air is introduced into them ; ' on the 'Cure of Ulcers ;' on the 'Characteristic marks of Countenance in Persons of different Countries and Ages,' which was afterwards published by his on in 4to in 1791, and followed by the description of a method of delineating various sorts of heads with accuracy ; on the 'Discovery of the Glands in the Interior of the Sternum;' on 'Contagious Diseases among Cattle ; ' on 'Specific Remedies ; ' on the 'Effects of Air, Sleep, &c. in the cure of Surgical Disorders;' on the 'Nature, Treatment, &c. of Dropsy ;' on 'Physical L'eauty r on the question, Why is Man exposed to more Diseases than other Animals?' and on the 'Fossil Bones of unknown and rare Animals' In 1792 his son published a sequel to the work ou 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,' &e.; and in 1803 a collection of his works appeared at Paris in 3 vols. 8vo, with a folio atlas of plates under the title of iluvres de Pierre Camper qui out pour objet l'Histoire Naturelle, la Physiologie, et l'Anatomie Comparde.' His 'Icones Henaiarum ' was, published at Frankfurt by Soemmering, 180], folio. Among the more prominent points in his works, we may mention his discovery of the presence of air in the bones of birds ; his demonstration that the curvature of the urethra is greater in children than in adults; his remarks on the variation of the facial angle in different nations; and his osteological investigations into lost races of animals.