Chirurgical Review, on being appointed principal of University Hall—an institution for the reception of students at University College, similar to the halls at Oxford and Cambridge. By this change he was enabled to devote more time to scientific pursuits.
Of these pursuits a very important one was the study of the Australian and Philippine Foraminifera; the results of which were given in memoirs to the Royal Society, between 1856 and 1860. In these papers, says Sir B. Brodie in the address already referred to, Dr. Carpenter "described some remarkable types which were previously quite unknown; he gave a detailed account of the very complex organization existing alike in the foregoing and in types previously well known by external configuration; he demonstrated the entire fallacy of the artificial system of classification hitherto in vogue, the primary divisions of which are based on the plan of growth; he laid the foundation of a natural system, based on those characters, in the internal structure and conformation of the shell, which are most closely related to the physiological conditions of the animal; and, finally, by the comparison of very large numbers of individuals, he proved the existence of an extremely wide range of variation among the leading types of Foraminifera, often reassembling under a single species varying forms, which, for want of a sufficiently careful study, had not merely been separated into distinct species, but had been arranged under different genera, families, and even orders."
Another important series of subjects that engaged Dr. Carpenter's attention about this time was the phenomena of mesmerism, hypnotism, electro-biology, etc. The result of his investigations will be found in the Quarterly Review for October, 1853. In this paper he endeavors to explain the phenomena by the automatic action of the mind under the influence of suggestion, the will being in abeyance. The same explanation he considers applicable to all the phenomena of spiritualism, with the exception of those which are referable either to trickery or self-deception.
A detailed account of Dr. Carpenter's contributions to the general body of scientific knowledge would be out of place here. Let it suffice to say that he continued to prosecute with success his researches into the microscopic structures of organisms. In 1856 he published "The Microscope and its Revelations." New editions of his two great works on physiology being again urgently demanded, there was entailed upon him immense labor in reorganizing them and bringing them up to the highest level of that rapidly-advancing science. So great, indeed, has been the toil required to keep the successive editions of the "Human Physiology" (which is at present in its eighth edition) abreast of the times, that the author has of late years been compelled to hand over to others this important duty, while he himself has devoted all his spare time and energy to original investigation in certain departments of zoology.
