Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Rose, Caleb Burrell
ROSE, CALEB BURRELL (1790–1872), geologist, was born at Eye in Suffolk, 10 Feb. 1790. In due course he was apprenticed to an uncle, a surgeon, and continued his studies for the medical profession at Guy's and St. Thomas's Hospitals. In 1816 he settled down in practice at Swaffham, Norfolk, where he married and had children, but was left a widower early in 1828. He was successful in his profession, and became a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1846. In 1859 he retired from practice, and went to reside at Great Yarmouth, where he died 29 Jan. 1872. He was the author of several medical papers, more especially on the subject of entozoa, but from youth to old age he was an example of a genuine 'naturalist.' It was as a geologist, and especially as an authority on Norfolk geology, that he made his mark; his first published contribution to science appearing in 1828. He formed a fine collection of fossils, which is now in the Norwich Museum. In 1839 he was elected F.G.S. Of some twenty-three papers by him on geological subjects, the most important one full of original observations and sound reasoning is entitled 'Sketch of the Geology of West Norfolk' (published in the 'Philosophical Magazine,' 1835-6); but he also was the first to call attention to the 'Brick Earth of the Valley of the Nar' (Proc. Sci. Soc. London, 1840, p. 61), and he described some 'parasitic borings in the scales of fossil fish' (Trans. Microsc. Soc. 2nd ser. iii. 7).
[Obituary notices in the Quart. Jour. Geol. Soc. vol. xxviii. (1872), Proc. p. xliii, and in the Trans. Norfolk and Norwich Naturalists' Soc. v. 387 (the latter, by Horace B. Woodward, being the more complete).]