Petrus Camper | |
|---|---|
 Petrus Camper | |
| Born | 11 May 1722 (1722-05-11) |
| Died | 7 April 1789 (1789-04-08) (aged 66) |
| Nationality | Dutch |
| Alma mater | University of Leiden,Oxford College |
| Known for | inventing the term "extinct" along withGeorges Cuvier to describe themammoth |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | anatomist physiologist philosopher surgeon (dissection) Draughtsman |
| Institutions | University of Franeker,Amsterdamse Atheneum,University of Groningen |
| Doctoral students | Martin van Marum |
Petrus CamperFRS (11 May 1722 – 7 April 1789), was a Dutch physician,anatomist,physiologist,midwife,zoologist,anthropologist,palaeontologist and anaturalist in theAge of Enlightenment. He was one of the first to take an interest incomparative anatomy,palaeontology, and thefacial angle. He was among the first to mark out an "anthropology," which he distinguished fromnatural history.[1] He studied theorangutan, theJavan rhinoceros, and the skull of amosasaur, which he believed was a whale.
Camper was a celebrity in Europe and became a member of theRoyal Society (1750), theGöttingen (1779), andRussian Academy of Sciences (1778), theRoyal Society of Edinburgh (1783), theFrench (1786) and thePrussian Academy of Sciences (1788). He designed and constructed tools for his patients, and for surgeries. He was an amateur drawer, a sculptor, apatron of art and a conservative, royalist politician. Camper published some lectures containing an account of hiscraniometrical methods. These laid the foundation of all subsequent work.
Petrus Camper was the son of a well-to-do minister, who made his fortuneBatavia, Dutch East Indies and returned with a (young?) pickledBornean orangutan in a jar.[2] A brilliant alumnus, he studied medicine and philosophy at theUniversity of Leiden and obtained a degree in both sciences on the same day at the age of 24.[3] After both his parents died Camper travelled to England (where he met withWilliam Smellie), to France (where he met withGeorges de Buffon) and Geneva. In the meantime he was appointed as professor of philosophy, anatomy and surgery at theUniversity of Franeker and Camper traveled toFriesland.
In 1756, Camper married the widow Johanna Boerboom, daughter of theburgomaster of Leeuwarden, whom he met while treating her husband, the burgomaster fromHarlingen.[4]
In 1755 he had moved to Amsterdam, where he occupied a chair of anatomy and surgery at theAthenaeum Illustre, later completed by a medicine chair. He investigatedinguinal hernia,patella and the best form of shoe. He withdrew five years later to dedicate himself to scientific research, living on his wife's estate "Klein Lankum" just outside Franeker. In his farewell speech, he mentioned that he had dissected more than 50 bodies in public, including a twelve-year-old Angolese African boy.[5] His experience led to the publication ofDemonstrationum anatomico-pathologicarum (1760-1762). In 1762 he became politically active and promoted public health issues such asvaccination againstsmallpox.[6]
In 1763 he accepted the chair of anatomy, surgery and botany at theUniversity of Groningen.[7] He made drawings to illustrate his eloquent lectures and the number of students grew.
His main focus of attention was anatomy, zoology and his collection of minerals and fossils. Among his many works, he studiedosteology of birds and discovered the presence of air in the innercavities of birds' skeletons. He investigated the anatomy of eight young orangutans, establishing it as a different species to humans, asquadrupeds, against the theories of contemporary scientists.[8] "Camper cleared up a lot of confusion when he distinguished theorangutan from thechimpanzee."[9] Petrus Camper published treatises on the hearing of fishes and the sound of frogs. He studied the diseases ofrinderpest andrabies (1768-1770). Camper kept a surgical clinic. Before retiring in 1773, he introduced several new instruments and procedures for surgery andobstetrics. Back in Franeker, he dissected an elephant and aJavan rhinoceros, after they died in themenagerie, belonging to thestadtholder. In 1782 he published his latest research, a treatise in which he disagreed withCarl Linnaeus and De Buffon on thetaxonomy of apes.[10]
One of the first to studycomparative anatomy, Petrus Camper demonstrated the principle of correlation in all organisms by "metamorphosis". In his 1778 lecture, "On the Points of Similarity between the Human Species,Quadrupeds, Birds, and Fish; with Rules for Drawing, founded on this Similarity," he metamorphosed a horse into a human being, thus showing the similarity between allvertebrates.Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire theorised this in 1795 as the "unity of organic composition," the influence of which is perceptible in all his subsequent writings; nature, he observed, presents us with only one plan of construction, the same in principle, but varied in its accessory parts. Camper's metamorphoses which demonstrated this "unity of Plan" greatly impressedDiderot andGoethe. In 1923 and 1939 some Dutch authors suggested that Camper foreshadowed Goethe's famous idea of "type" – a common structural pattern in some manner[12]
Petrus Camper is renowned for his theory offacial angle (prognathism). He determined that humans had facial angles between 70° and 80°, with African and Asian angles closer to 70°, and European angles closer to 80. According to his new portraiture technique, an angle is formed by drawing two lines: one horizontally from thenostril to the ear, and the otherperpendicularly from the advancing part of the upperjawbone to the most prominent part of theforehead. He claimed that antique Greco-Roman statues presented an angle of 100°-95°, Europeans of 80°, 'Orientals' of 70°, Black people of 70° and the orangutan of 42–58°. He stated that, out of all races, Africans were most removed from the classical sense of ideal beauty. These results were later used asscientific racism, with research continued by Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire andPaul Broca.
Camper, however, agreed withBuffon in drawing a sharp line between human and animals (although he was misinterpreted byDiderot, who claimed that he was a supporter of theGreat Chain of Being theory).[13][14] Camper confirmed the categorizingspecies byLinné.[15]
He was interested in architecture,mathematics, furniture making, drawing and illustrated his own lectures. Four times he gave lectures in Amsterdam to art students, e.g. on beauty andportraiture. He disagreed that artists painted the black Magus (in thenativity) with aCaucasian face. In 1780 he took lessons fromÉtienne Maurice Falconet. In his ideas about art, Camper was influenced byJohann Joachim Winckelmann. He made drawings of theDolmen nearNoordlaren. He was in the selection committee for the prize contest for the design of thenew townhall in Groningen that was awarded to his friendJacob Otten Husly.
Georges Cuvier praised his "genius eye" but criticised him for keeping himself to simple sketches.[16] He had aeulogy in his honour composed byNicolas de Condorcet andFélix Vicq-d'Azyr. Camper influencedLouis-Jean-Marie Daubenton.
His sonAdriaan Gilles Camper published much of his father's unpublished research in addition to a biography of him.[17]
The Dutch authorThomas Rosenboom used Petrus Camper as a character in his novel,Gewassen vlees (1994).[18]
Camper was elected to theAmerican Philosophical Society in 1789.[19]
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) (with a drawing of Camper's animated metamorphose) – URL. Retrieved 28 February 2007
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