Petrus Camper | |
|---|---|
 Petrus Camper | |
| Born | 11 May 1722 |
| Died | 7 April 1789 (aged 66) |
| Nationality | Dutch |
| Alma mater | University of Leiden, Oxford College |
| Known for | inventing the term "extinct" along with Georges Cuvier to describe the mammoth |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | anatomist physiologist philosopher surgeon (dissection) Draughtsman |
| Institutions | University of Franeker, Amsterdamse Atheneum, University of Groningen |
| Doctoral students | Martin van Marum |
Petrus Camper FRS (11 May 1722 – 7 April 1789), was a Dutch physician, anatomist, physiologist, midwife, zoologist, anthropologist, palaeontologist and a naturalist in the Age of Enlightenment. He was one of the first to take an interest in comparative anatomy, palaeontology, and the facial angle. He was among the first to mark out an "anthropology," which he distinguished from natural history.[1] He studied the orangutan, the Javan rhinoceros, and the skull of a mosasaur, which he believed was a whale.
Camper was a celebrity in Europe and became a member of the Royal Society (1750), the Göttingen (1779), and Russian Academy of Sciences (1778), the Royal Society of Edinburgh (1783), the French (1786) and the Prussian Academy of Sciences (1788). He designed and constructed tools for his patients, and for surgeries. He was an amateur drawer, a sculptor, a patron of art and a conservative, royalist politician. Camper published some lectures containing an account of his craniometrical methods. These laid the foundation of all subsequent work.
- ^ "Alan J. Barnard, Review Essay: "Anthropology, Race, and Englishness: Changing Notions of Complexion and Character," Eighteenth Century Life 25 (2002): 94-102". Geocities. 23 June 2004. Archived from the original on 23 June 2004.