The Online Library of Liberty

A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.

• Introduction
• Jeremy Bentham and James Mill
• Rationale of Judicial Evidence
• Analysis of the Phenomena of the Human Mind
• Botanical Writings 1840–61
• Calendar of Odours April 1840
• Rare Plants In West Surrey June 1841
• Isatis Tinctoria June 1841
• Notes On Plants Growing In the Neighbourhood of Guildford, Surrey August 1841
• Cnicus Forsteri September 1841
• Additional Guildford Stations September 1841
• Polygonum Dumetorum November 1841
• Rarer Plants of the Isle of Wight November 1841
• Corrections and Additions In Mr. Mill’s List of Plants In the Isle of Wight January 1842
• The Phytologist; a Botanical Magazine December 1843
• Notes On the Species of Oenanthe February 1845
• Correction of an Error In the “notes On the Species of Oenanthe” April 1845
• Observations On Isatis Tinctoria and Other Plants May 1856
• Plants Growing Wild In the District of Luxford’s Reigate Florajune 1856
• Note On West Surrey Plants July 1856
• Reigate Plants October 1856
• Plants Growing On and Near Blackheath April 1857
• Late (early?) Flowering Plants: Plants In Flower In the District of Eltham and Chiselhurst, In November, 1857 January 1858
• Hutchinsia Petraea May 1858
• Leucojum Aestivum July 1858
• Clifton Plants July 1858
• Plants On Sherborn Sands, Blackheath, and Other Stations September 1858
• Some Derbyshire Plants September 1858
• Linaria Purpurea September 1858
• Faversham Plants October 1858
• Lepidium Ruderale April 1859
• Wallflower Growing On the Living Rock May 1860
• Spring Flowers of the South of Europe: Remarks On Some of the Spring Flowers of the South of Europe, and On Their Representatives In the British Isles October 1860
• Botany of Spain. a Few Days’ Botanizing In the North-eastern Provinces of Spain, In April and May, 1860 August 1861-february 1862
• Verbascum Thapsiforme October 1862
• Medical Reviews 1834, 1842
• Dr. King’s Lecture On the Study of Anatomy November 1834
• Carpenter’s Physiology January 1842
• Appendices
• Appendix A: Wills and Deed of Gift 1853-72
• Appendix B: the Vixen, and Circassia April 1837
• Appendix C: The Spanish Question July 1837
• Appendix D: Questions Before the Select Committee On Metropolitan Local Government 1867
• Appendix E: Mill At the Political Economy Club 1840-65
• Appendix F: Textual Emendations
• Appendix G: Index of Persons, and Works Cited, With Variants and Notes

Carpenter’s Physiology

JANUARY 1842

this is a book to which justice cannot be done without a much fuller notice than can be given in this part of our journal, and we shall probably return to it in a future number. The author (who is the son of the late respected Dr. Lant Carpenter, of Bristol, and who, though still a young man, has long been known as a physiologist of eminence)¹ has not only accumulated in this work a richer store of the mere facts of the science than we believe is to be obtained in the same compass elsewhere, but has displayed in an eminent degree one of the principal attributes of a philosopher, as distinguished from a mere man of science, the power of generalizing. To the experienced reader, it is already some indication of this quality, that Dr. Carpenter includes in his design the physiology of plants as well as of animals, the best physiologists being now convinced that so far as respects mere organic life, the formation, nutrition, and reproduction of the living body (independently of the superadded casualties of sensation and voluntary motion), there is no fundamental distinction between the animal and vegetable creation, but both are governed by essentially the same organic laws, variously modified by circumstances.

In Dr. Carpenter’s book this and a large body of similar truths are established and illustrated with a very uncommon degree of philosophic power, and the work may be considered as a clear exposition of the highest generalities yet arrived at in the science of life. As such breadth of speculation and reach of philosophy, applied to this subject, have not hitherto been often exemplified in this country, English writers having remained greatly inferior in this highest scientific attribute to the physiologists of France and Germany, it is highly creditable to our scientific and medical public that Dr. Carpenter’s work has been warmly welcomed and highly applauded by almost all the professional periodicals,² and by most of those scientific authorities whose praise confers real honour.

APPENDICES

[1 ]William Benjamin Carpenter (1813-85) was the son of Lant Carpenter (1780-1840), a Unitarian preacher, polemicist, and schoolmaster.

[2 ]See, e.g., the anonymous reviews in the British and Foreign Medical Review, VII (Jan. 1830), 168-85, and the Medical Gazette, 2 Feb., 1839, 675-8.