1. Petrus Camper FRS, was a Dutch physician, anatomist, physiologist, midwife, zoologist, anthropologist, palaeontologist and a naturalist in the Age of Enlightenment.
25 Facts About Petrus Camper
1. 2.
Petrus Camper was one of the first to take an interest in comparative anatomy, palaeontology, and the facial angle.
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Petrus Camper was among the first to mark out an "anthropology," which he distinguished from natural history.
4.
Petrus Camper studied the orangutan, the Javan rhinoceros, and the skull of a mosasaur, which he believed was a whale.
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Petrus Camper designed and constructed tools for his patients, and for surgeries.
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Petrus Camper was an amateur drawer, a sculptor, a patron of art and a conservative, royalist politician.
7.
Petrus Camper published some lectures containing an account of his craniometrical methods.
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Petrus Camper was the son of a well-to-do minister, who made his fortune Batavia, Dutch East Indies and returned with a pickled Bornean orangutan in a jar.
9.
In 1756, Petrus Camper married the widow Johanna Boerboom, daughter of the burgomaster of Leeuwarden, whom he met while treating her husband, the burgomaster from Harlingen.
10.
Petrus Camper investigated inguinal hernia, patella and the best form of shoe.
11.
Petrus Camper withdrew five years later to dedicate himself to scientific research, living on his wife's estate "Klein Lankum" just outside Franeker.
12.
Petrus Camper's experience led to the publication of Demonstrationum anatomico-pathologicarum.
13.
Petrus Camper made drawings to illustrate his eloquent lectures and the number of students grew.
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Petrus Camper's main focus of attention was anatomy, zoology and his collection of minerals and fossils.
15.
Petrus Camper investigated the anatomy of eight young orangutans, establishing it as a different species to humans, as quadrupeds, against the theories of contemporary scientists.
16.
Petrus Camper studied the diseases of rinderpest and rabies.
17.
One of the first to study comparative anatomy, Petrus Camper demonstrated the principle of correlation in all organisms by "metamorphosis".
18.
Petrus Camper is renowned for his theory of facial angle.
19.
Petrus Camper stated that, out of all races, Africans were most removed from the classical sense of ideal beauty.
20.
Petrus Camper agreed with Buffon in drawing a sharp line between human and animals.
21.
Petrus Camper was interested in architecture, mathematics, furniture making, drawing and illustrated his own lectures.
22.
Petrus Camper disagreed that artists painted the black Magus with a Caucasian face.
23.
Petrus Camper was in the selection committee for the prize contest for the design of the new townhall in Groningen that was awarded to his friend Jacob Otten Husly.
24.
Petrus Camper had a eulogy in his honour composed by Nicolas de Condorcet and Felix Vicq-d'Azyr.
25.
Petrus Camper was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1789.