Background
Camper was born on May 11, 1722, at Leiden, the Netherlands. His father, Florent Camper, was a clergyman, and other members of his family had long been distinguished in the local government.
Rapenburg 70, 2311 EZ Leiden, Netherlands
When he was twelve Camper was accepted at Leiden University, where he studied classics, natural sciences, and medicine for twelve years. On 14 October 1746 he took his degrees in science and in medicine with two theses.
In September, 1749, Camper was appointed professor of philosophy in Franeker University.
De Lairessestraat 97, 1071 NX Amsterdam, Netherlands
In 1755, Camper was appointed professor of anatomy in Athenaeum Illustre.
anatomist anthropologist midwife naturalist palaeontologist physician physiologist scientist Zoologist
Camper was born on May 11, 1722, at Leiden, the Netherlands. His father, Florent Camper, was a clergyman, and other members of his family had long been distinguished in the local government.
Camper's father took care that his gifted son was taught carpentry, as well as the arts of design and painting, at an early age. When he was twelve Camper was accepted at Leiden University, where he studied classics, natural sciences, and medicine for twelve years. Among his teachers were W. J. Gravesande, Pieter van Musschenbroek, and, in the medical faculty, Albinus the Younger, Herman Oosterdijk Schacht, and H. D. Gaub. Camper practiced midwifery under the guidance of C. Trioen, the teacher of the city’s midwives. On 14 October 1746 he took his degrees in science and in medicine with two theses, De visu and De quibusdam oculi partibus, both published in Leiden in the same year.
After having been a physician, Camper left Leiden in 1748 for a long journey through England, France, Switzerland, and Germany; during the trip he met many foreign scientists, contacts that he later cultivated. In England he attended William Smellie’s course in midwifery and was accepted as a member of the Painters’ Academy. In September 1749, while traveling from Paris to Geneva, the twenty-seven-year-old scientist was notified that he had been appointed professor of philosophy at Franeker University, in the province of Friesland. Soon he was also awarded the chairs of medicine and surgery. His assumption of the chairs was delayed by illness until 28 April 1751; in his inaugural address (De mundo optimo) he dealt with the best of all possible worlds. Four years later, in 1755, Camper was appointed professor of anatomy and surgery at the Athenaeum Illustre in Amsterdam. His inaugural address (De anatomes in omnibus scientiis usu) concerned the use of anatomy in all sciences.
In Amsterdam he performed many dissections for the surgeons’ guild and was portrayed with the governors of that guild by Tibout Regters. In 1758 he was appointed professor of medicine and delivered an oration on certainty in medicine (De certo in medicina). However, in 1761, at the urging of his wife, he resigned his professorship (retaining the title professor honorarius) to settle at her country house in Klein Lankum, near Franeker. There he conducted research in comparative anatomy and completed his two-volume Demonstrationum anatomico-pathologicarum (1760-1762) as well as minor papers. After two years the restless man accepted an appointment in theoretical medicine, anatomy, surgery, and botany at Groningen University.
His broad outlook on nature is apparent from the subject of his inaugural oration (De analogía inter animaba et stirpes), in which he discussed the analogy between animals and plants. For some ten years Camper devoted himself to his extensive teaching duties (he also gave a course in forensic medicine) and his medical consultations. In the academic year 1765-1766 he acted as vice-chancellor. In 1773 Camper again retired to return to Klein Lankum. The death of his wife following an operation for breast cancer (1776) left him depressed. He attempted to improve his frame of mind by traveling in Germany and Belgium. As a landowner Camper was concerned about the flooding of a great part of Friesland in 1776; he wrote a booklet critical of the building of dikes that provoked a polemical answer. Gradually he became more involved in public affairs; he became burgomaster of Workum and member of the States of Friesland, which sent him as a representative to the States-General in The Hague. There, as a faithful supporter of the house of Orange, he was nominated a member of the State Council.
Camper died on April 7, 1789, at The Hague and was buried in the Pieterskerk, Leiden.
((German Edition))
((German Edition))
1772For some thirty years Camper practiced midwifery and performed several experimental symphysiotomies on pigs, an operation that, however, he never performed on a living human. In anatomy he described structures that are still associated with him: the processus vaginalis (peritonei and lestis), Camper’s fascia, and Camper’s chiasma tendinum digitorum manus. In comparative anatomy he discovered the air spaces in the bones of birds and studied the hearing of fishes and the croaking of frogs. He performed careful dissections of the elephant, the rhinoceros, and the orangutan. His measurement of the facial angle and the introduction of Camper’s line contributed to the foundation of anthropology.
In surgery Camper recommended a procedure of cutting for bladder stone in two operations. He was a supporter of inoculation, and his thesis on vision was a good piece of work.
In 1756, Camper married Johanna Boerboom, daughter of the burgomaster of Leeuwarden, whom he met in 1754 while treating her husband.