Dictionary of National Biography, 1901 supplement/Carpenter, Philip Herbert
CARPENTER, PHILIP HERBERT (1852–1891), palæontologist and zoologist, fourth son of William Benjamin Carpenter [q. v.], was born in London on 6 Feb. 1852. Educated at University College school, he was at an early age drawn by home influences to the study of natural science. In his seventeenth year he accompanied his father in the Lightning on a dredging and sounding cruise to the Faroes, and next year in the Porcupine, in which vessel during the following summer he went to the Mediterranean, acting as a scientific assistant on these cruises. In 1871 he obtained a scholarship in natural science at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he more especially studied geology and biology, obtaining a first class in the natural science tripos of 1874. He proceeded to the degree of M.A. in 1878, and of Sc.D. in 1884.
After quitting Cambridge and making a voyage in the Valorous to Disco Bay in 1875 for scientific purposes, he went to Würzburg and worked under Professor Semper. While there, in consequence of a controversy which had arisen concerning his father's investigations into the structure of crinoids, he specially studied that group, and made important discoveries which soon placed him in the front rank of authorities on that subject. On his return to England in 1877 he was appointed an assistant master at Eton in special charge of the biological teaching. With many men such duties would have practically put an end to original research, but Carpenter's enthusiasm and indomitable energy enabled him to carry out a remarkable amount. The rich collection of echinodermata brought back by the Challenger in 1876 proved an additional stimulus, and from that time onwards to his death a constant stream of papers flowed from his pen on echinoderms, and especially on crinoid morphology. These are about fifty in number, and to them we must add his two chief works, the ‘Report on the stalked Crinoids, collected by the Challenger,’ published in 1884, and that on the free-swimming forms in 1888. Besides these he was joint author (with Mr. R. Etheridge, jun.) of the catalogue of the Blastoidea in the British Museum, and made important investigations into another fossil order, the Cystidea.
The characteristic of his work, apart from its thoroughness and accuracy, was that it was conducted on the following principle: ‘The only way to understand fossils properly is to gain a thorough knowledge of the morphology of their living representatives. These, on the other hand, seem to me incompletely known, if no account is taken of the life forms which have preceded them.’
Carpenter also largely aided in the section dealing with the echinoderms in Nicholson and Lydekker's ‘Palæontology’ (1889), wrote a popular account of the same group in Cassell's ‘Natural History’ (1883), and was, in addition, ever ready to help fellow labourers in science. Probably these incessant labours affected even his vigorous constitution, for after suffering in the summer of 1891 from an unusually severe attack of influenza, its effects, aggravated by some domestic anxieties, brought about an unwonted depression (for generally he was remarkable for his buoyant spirits), and while in that condition, yielding to a sudden and unexpected impulse, he ended his life on 21 Oct. 1891. This was a heavy loss to science; it was, if possible, a yet heavier one to friends.
Carpenter was elected F.L.S. in 1886, F.R.S. on 4 June 1885, and in 1883 was awarded by the Geological Society part of the Lyell fund on the same day that his father received the medal. He was married on 19 April 1879 to Caroline Emma Hale, daughter of Edward Hale, an assistant master at Eton, by whom he had five sons, all surviving him.
[Obituary notices; Proc. Roy. Soc. li. p. xxxvi, by A. M. M[arshall]; Proc. Linn. See. 1890-2, p. 263; Geological Magazine, 1891, p. 573, by F. A. B[ather]; Nature, xliv. 628; information from Mrs. Carpenter (widow), and personal knowledge.]