Philip Herbert Carpenter, M.A., D.Sc., F.R.S., born in February 1852 in London, fourth son of Dr. William Benjamin Carpenter, died October 21, 1891, at Eton College, England, in at age 39.[1] He took his own life, by self-administration of chloroform during a bout of temporary insanity caused by chronic insomnia.[2]
Dr. Carpenter was educated at University College School, then at University College, and afterwards became a Scholar of Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated in 1874.[3]
Dr. Carpenter was a member of the scientific staff of the deep-sea exploring expeditions of H.M.S. Lightning (1868) and Porcupine (1869–1870). In 1875 he was appointed assistant naturalist to H.M.S. Valorous accompanying Admiral Sir George Strong Nares's Arctic expedition to Disco Island, and spent the summer sounding and dredging in Davis Strait and the North Atlantic. Dr. Carpenter was an expert on the morphology of the echinoderms, especially the crinoids, both contemporary and fossil. In 1883 he was awarded the Lyell Fund[4] by the Geological Society of London in recognition of the scientific value of his work, and in 1885 was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.[5]
This article incorporates text from Men and Women of the Time, by G. Washington Moon, a publication from 1891 now in the public domain in the United States.