CARPENTER, NVILLIA.n BENJAMIN (1813 S5). An English physiologist, born at Exeter. Soon after his graduation in Edinburgh, in 1839, he published his Principles of General and ram paratire Physiology, afterward-, divided into The Principles of nanparatire Physiology and 7'11c Principles of General Physiology. These worke, together with The Principles of Human Physiol ogy (1846. and still a standard work. after going through many editions) and 7'11e Principles of Mental Physiology (15741, form a perfect cyclo pmdia cif biological science. Carpenter likewise laildishell: Manual of Physiology; The Iliero /Is I.,relations and /is (MI' eel., 1881) : a prize essay upon The Use and Abuse of Alcoholic Liquors (1851); and numerous memoirs on various departments of physiology, microscopical anatomy, and natural! history. in the Philosophical Transactions. most im portant original researches are Ott the Structure of Shells; On the Hut-clop:tient of Purpura Lapil las; and On the Structure, Functions, and Gen eral Ilistory of the Foruminifcra. His published works also include: Zoology and the Instincts of .Inimals ( 1857 ) ; Physiology of Temperance (1870) ; Mesmerism and Spiritualism (1877) and Nature and Nan (1888). For several years
he edited The British and Foreign ('hirur•gicu1 licricw, and he was one of the editors of The Natural History Reriew. From 1856 to 1879 he was registrar of the University of London. He took a chief part in the Govern ment expedition sent out in ISGS-70 for deep sea exploration in the northern Atlantic, and in consequence he contributed largely to the dis cussion of the vexed question of ocean circula tion, in the Journal of the Royal Geographical Society and other periodicals. Ih• advocated the doctrine of a rertical circulation, sustained by opposition of temperature only. independent of and distinct from the horizontal currents pro duced by winds. This doctrine was first ad vanced by Professor Lenz, of Saint Petersburg. in 1845; hut Dr. Carpenter was ignorant of this when the deep-sea observations, begun in 186S, led him to an identical theory. Ile was presi dent, in 1872, of the British Association for the Advancement of Science.