A Surgeon and Discovery of a Large Bone, Electrolysis, Photography, Flight, and More
(Please forgive the awful Henry Bone pun! It was irresistible! The research of this portrait has determined Sir Anthony Carlisle as an amazing and influential person in the early 19C who really deserves a much fuller biography than can be included here. For no apparent reason, history books have largely overlooked him and so this description attempts to redress the balance a little. It may be presumptuous to describe Carlisle as a really great man, but the research below indicates he made insightful comments across many different disciplines.)
This large (170mm x 205mm) miniature portrait in enamel on copper is by Henry Bone (6 Feb 1755-17 Dec 1834) and portrays the surgeon, anatomist, scientist, and author, Sir Anthony Carlisle (15 Feb 1768-2 Nov 1840).The miniature is dated 1827 and represents the discovery of a previously unknown, and earlier, version of a similar enamel miniature of Sir Anthony Carlisle by Henry Bone, which was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1828.
Carlisle was primarily a surgeon, but lived at a time when scientists could still be generalists in the scientific field, making positive contributions in whatever aspect attracted their attention.
He was a leading person of his day in many fields.
For example, Sir Anthony Carlisle has been credited as the discoverer of electrolysis in 1800, even though he does not seem to have pursued the concept beyond his initial discovery, to seek a commercial or scientific use.
It instead seems Carlisle's experimentation with electrolysis and photography were perhaps regarded by him as hobbies to be pursued with friends and, as such, separate from his main career as a surgeon.
Quite possibly it was the 1800 letter from Volta which diverted Carlisle from the previous pursuit of a photographic image, instead towards batteries and electrolysis, where a successful outcome was achieved.
Carlisle obviously had an acute and inquiring mind over many fields. He is even mentioned in both "Capital" by Karl Marx and Isabella Beeton in "The Book of Household Management" !
The Miniature
Although it is hard to read in this image, the counter enamel of the portrait is inscribed and signed by the artist as; "Sir Anthony Carlisle FRS after M A Shee RA" and "HBone 1827".The miniature is very large for any kind of miniature portrait, being 200mm x 170mm (8ins x 6.75ins), especially so being painted in enamels.
The size can be better appreciated from a photo below, which shows four other enamel miniatures in this collection next to it for comparative purposes. The four includes two miniatures in the centre by one of Henry Bone's sons, Henry Pierce Bone (1779-1855).
The technique of painting in enamels is especially demanding, as the pigments change colour during firing and different colours fire at different temperatures. The reverse of the copper panel needs to also be covered in enamel to prevent cracking.Even with much experience, it is hard to avoid firing fractures when painting a portrait of this size and nature. In the photos it is possible to see several pale horizontal lines which were in-filled by Henry Bone before he completed the portrait. (At the top left can be seen later damage.)
That this in-filling is acceptable on a large enamel portrait is proved by a comment by Bone himself which forms part of the inscription on an enamel portrait which Bone painted of George Washington.The Washington portrait is part of the famous Gilbert Collection of enamel miniatures and the inscription on the reverse reads in part "...cracked on the 5th fire...". The portrait is illustrated on page 60 of the Gilbert Collection catalogue by Sarah Coffin and Bodo Hofstetter, but it can also be seen at Gilbert Collection There is an almost identically positioned horizontal mark, to that showing on the Carlisle miniature, running from the middle right to the centre of the Washington portrait.
Enlarged photos, such as these two close up images reveal even more clearly the skill of Bone as an artist.
Although it is not currently on public view, Henry Bone's preliminary sketch for this Carlisle miniature, being a pencil drawing squared in ink for transfer, is held by the National Portrait Gallery in London, see Sir Anthony CarlisleThe squared drawing would then be traced with red chalk onto the enamel surface which would then be fired to fix the chalk outline.
Colours, often based upon powdered glass would then be added over several different firings. The artist needing to know how the various pigments would each react to heat.
The Carlisle enamel is based upon an oil portrait by Sir Martin Archer Shee (1770-1850), the current whereabouts of which is not confirmed, but it may be held by the Royal College of Surgeons in London. At present a photo of the oil is therefore unavailable.
The Shee portrait was exhibited in 1824 at the Royal Academy where the reviewer noted, amongst other portraits: "those of Mrs Borridge and of Sir Anthony Carlisle by Shee, both of which are conspicuous for that neatness of handling which adds to the pleasantness of the general effect without much diminishing its force. See The New Monthly Magazine - Google Books Result
Another review of the Shee oil portrait was included in the London Magazine of 1824, where the reviewer wrote; "No 83 Portrait of Sir Anthony Carlisle MA Shee HA This is Mr Shee's best picture it is an excellent likeness the distribution of light and shade is very judicious and there is very little of this artist's manner in the execution." The London Magazine - Google Books Result
In the "Court and Fashionable Magazine" of 1830 the reviewer "P J" recorded of Martin Arthur Shee, that "Sir Anthony Carlisle was another of his happiest portraits".
I am grateful to a kind visitor who has provided some more information on versions of the Carlisle portrait. Two of them are shown here.
Showing on the left is an engraving of the oil portrait. It was engraved by H Robinson and appears in a book by Thomas Joseph Pettigrew (1791-1865) titled "Biographical Memoirs of the Most Celebrated Physicians, Surgeons etc who have contributed to The Advancement of Medical Science". The book was published in several volumes in 1838-1840.It may be an optical illusion, but in the engraving taken from the oil, Carlisle appears to be looking slightly to the left of the viewer, whereas in the miniature by Bone, he is looking directly at the viewer. If this impression is correct, it shows that Bone used the large oil portraits as a base, but was prepared to adjust the pose to suit his own interpretation of how the portrait should look.
On the right is a catalogue photograph from an auction of Christie’s London on 27 March 1984, Lot 192, showing the 1828 enamel version of the miniature, which is of similar size to the 1827 version.As can be seen in the accompanying catalogue description of Lot 192, there is a much longer inscription on the reverse of the portrait.
It is interesting to speculate on the reason for the second, 1828 version. The most likely reason seems to be that Bone was very pleased with this 1827 result and wished to exhibit it at the Royal Academy.
However the firing fractures discussed above, which he had needed to fill in completing the enamel, would have detracted from the finished work. Hence he probably decided to paint a second version for the exhibition. This would also explain the much fuller inscription on the rear of the 1828 version.
In the Literary Gazette, a report of the 1828 Royal Academy Exhibition included the following reference to the 1828 Bone enamel of Carlisle. "The Enamels by H Bone RA are in their usual style of finished excellence and will perpetuate copies of the following valuable and characteristic paintings; No 502 His Majesty then Prince of Wales by Sir Joshua Reynolds in the possession of Col Braddytt, No 503 Sir Anthony Carlisle by MA Shee Esq RA, No 515 Holy Family by Andrea del Sarto in the collection of the Marquess of Lansdoicne, No 516 an Angel by Aloano, and No 517 The Countess of Somerset in the gallery of the Duke of Bedford Woburn Abbey." See The Literary Gazette: A Weekly Journal of Literature, Science, and ... - Google Books Result
A further reference to the 1828 version, but not the newly discovered 1827 version, can be seen in a famous and comprehensive article by Richard Walker on Bone’s pencil drawings. The article also records the previously mentioned drawing held by the NPG, see Sir Anthony Carlisle
The Walker article was published by the Walpole Society in its annual publication, Volume 61 1999, see Publications on the History of British Art
The Artist
Works by Henry Bone are highly regarded today and keenly sought after when they appear on the market.His miniatures tend to average about 100mm in height, but vary a great deal in size. Thus the Carlisle miniature being 200mm high, ranks as one of his larger works.
On 2 Sep 2008 this round enamel by Henry Bone described as; "James William Caulfeild, Viscount Caulfeild (1803-1823), wearing black coat, yellow waistcoat, white chemise and black stock", signed and dated 1824 and 57mm in diameter, was sold by Bonhams as lot 173, for GBP3,600 inclusive of buyer's commission.
On 15 November 2006 a Henry Bone miniature of the artist George Stubbs (1724-1806) and about 115mm high, sold for nearly GBP50,000, which may be a record for the artist.
Henry Bone was born in Truro Cornwall, the son of a woodcarver and cabinet-maker. Initially he trained as a china painter and worked at the Plymouth and Bristol factories until the latter failed in 1778.The china item shown here and described as "A rare genuine Bristol Plymouth hard paste porcelain large deep dish painted in the style of Henry Bone, 7.5ins x 1.3ins high" was recently offered for sale.
Bone settled in London in c1779 and married Elizabeth van der Meulen there on 21 Jan 1779. They had twelve children, including those dying in infancy, and several who became artists in their own rights.
Henry Bone was much employed by London jewellers for small designs in enamel, before his merits as an artist were well known to the public.In 1800 the beauty of his pieces attracted the notice of the Royal Academy, of which he was then admitted as an associate; in 1811 he was made an academician. The bust of Henry Bone here is by Francis Chantrey.
Thus soon after his arrival in London, Bone had commenced to paint and exhibit in enamels. He proceeded to exhibit for over fifty years from 1781 until 1834, the year of his death. His enamel works for the most part, tended to be copies of paintings by other artists.
The first enamel miniature he exhibited in 1780 attracted a great deal of interest, as it was about 60mm high, whereas previous British enamel portraits had been much smaller, about 30mm high, which is the size of the miniature portrait of King William III shown above, the smallest of those shown, at the top left adjacent to the Carlisle portrait.
The Prince Regent was a great patron of Henry Bone until the second decade and Bone painted a very famous portrait of the Prince Regent based upon an oil by Sir Thomas Lawrence, for which there was a great demand for copies. There are at least ten miniature versions of this portrait by Bone in existence, including one in the Gilbert CollectionFor several years the Prince Regent was the purchaser of the large enamels painted by Bone, which had not been specifically commissioned and in 1800 Bone was appointed Enamel Painter to His Royal Highness. He was successively appointed Enamel Painter to George III, George IV, William IV and the Duke of York.
Perhaps the climax of his enamel work was a "miniature" of "Bacchus and Ariadne" a copy of an oil by Titian which he exhibited in 1811.Bone's copy was on a huge, enamelled, copper plate, 460mm x 400mm (18ins x 16ins), more than twice the size of the Carlisle enamel above.
Bone sold "Bacchus and Ariadne" to George Bowles for 2200 guineas, an enormous sum at the time and probably around GBP100,000 in today's money.
Most major art museums around the world hold examples of Bone's work and he was a prolific artist. At the National Portrait Gallery in London, he is recorded as Artist associated with 671 portraits !!
A very full obituary for Henry Bone, recorded in 1836, can be read at The Annual Biography and Obituary for the Year ... - Google Books Result
The Sitter
Sir Anthony Carlisle FRCS, FRS (15 Feb 1768-2 Nov 1840) was born in Stillington, County Durham, England. He was the third son of Thomas Carlisle (c1735-?) and his first wife. There are conflicting reports of her name, one source says Barbara Hubback (Hubbock, Hubbuck) of Cowpen, Bewley and another says Elizabeth Hutchinson. However, it seems probable that report is incorrect and Elizabeth Hutchinson was actually his father's mother.The younger half-brother of Anthony Carlisle was also prominent in the 19C. He was Nicholas Carlisle FRS (1770-27 Aug 1847). For over 40 years he was one of the Secretaries of the Society of Antiquaries.
Anthony and Nicholas Carlisle traced their descent from their ancestor in the fifth degree John Carlisle of Witton le Wear in the county of Durham who was buried there on the 26 May 1670. Nicholas was himself born it is believed in the city of York where he was baptized in the church of Bishophill the Younger on the 8th Feb 1771.
Their grandfather married first Elizabeth Hutchinson an immediate descendant from Colonel Hutchinson who defended Nottingham Castle and secondly Susanna Skottowe (1737-?) to whose father Captain Cook the celebrated circumnavigator owed his education. Her sister Anne was the wife of Robert Wood esq the author of the Essay on Homer and of magnificent works on the ruins of Palmyra and Balbec.
Anthony Carlisle was first apprenticed to practitioners in York and Durham, including his uncle Anthony Hubback, then William Green and later he studied under John Hunter in London. On arrival in London, he also studied art at the Royal Academy. He was appointed Surgeon at Westminster Hospital in 1793 and remained in that position for 47 years.
He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1804. He was appointed Professor of Anatomy to the Royal Society in 1808, which position he held for sixteen years. In 1815 he was appointed to the Council of the College of Surgeons and for many years was a curator of the Hunterian Museum.
The Friends of Kensal Cemetery have kindly confirmed that Carlisle is buried in Kensal Cemetery; "I can confirm that Sir Anthony is resting at KGC. The records show that on 7th November 1840 Barbara Leonora Carlisle and Annabella Carlisle purchased grave number 2736 in Square 21 for the sum of £3 3s 0d. The grave was 6' 6" x 2' 6'' x 12' deep. Sir Anthony Carlisle was deposited in the grave in 1840 and Annabella Carlisle in 1856.
According to the records there was a head and foot stone, curbs and a rail. I will have a look at the cemetery plans and then on the ground to see if any trace of the monument remains." For more about the cemetery refer to The Friends of Kensal Green Cemetery where there is information about many famous people buried there.
One of Carlisle's innovations was the collection, analysis and publication of medical statistics. His first Royal appointment was as surgeon to the Duke of Gloucester.
Carlisle also became Surgeon Extraordinary (5 Apr 1820-26 June 1830) to King George IV, by whom he was knighted on 24 Jul 1821. Carlisle was a founder of the Royal College of Surgeons and twice its President, in 1829 and 1839.
Carlisle took great interest in Westminster Hospital, and was largely instrumental in raising funds for the new building. He was said to be neither a brilliant anatomist nor physiologist, but was a fairly good surgeon. His introduction of the thin-bladed, straight-edged amputating knife, in place of the old clumsy crooked one, and his use of the simple carpenter's saw, make his name worthy of note.
Evidence of the thoughts of Carlisle about reviving bodies at the time, can be found in the will of Francis Douce (1757-1834), the 1807 author of "Illustrations of Shakespeare". Douce was a learned antiquary, an active author on antiquarian subjects, Keeper of Manuscripts in the British Museum and member of the Roxburghe Club. He built up a very substantial personal collection of books which he used in his writing and editing before bequeathing them to the Bodleian Library.
Douce was perhaps a trifle eccentric, (or concerned about success!) as can be seen in the first clause of his will (as quoted by DNB): "I give to Sir Anthony Carlisle £200 requesting him either to sever my head or extract the heart from my body so as to prevent any possibility of the return of vitality".
However, this may have been from a fear of premature interment, which was not uncommon in the 19C, see an 1859 reference where Bruhier collected 180 instances. Things Not Generally Known, Familiarly Explained: A Book for Old ... - Google Books Result These instances would have been well known to Carlisle and no doubts via his discussions with William Godwin, also to Mary Godwin as a child. Perhaps another fear she had when she visited her mother's grave.
Another anecdote regarding Carlise refers to his lectures at the Royal Academy when he handed round human remains including heads and brains on plates: "Yet there have been times when the anatomy lectures at the Academy drew such crowds that people fought to get in, and officers from Bow Street had to be stationed at the door to keep out the disorderly element. Those were the addresses of Sir Anthony Carlisle, and the crowds were drawn to Somerset House not by the merits of the lecturer but by extraneous attractions. Sir Anthony, who used to lecture in full Court dress, with lace ruffles, and a bagwig, made a point always of providing some novelty that would be sure of attracting the town. Once, to display the muscles in action, he had a squad of eight nude Life Guardsmen going through the sword exercise, and again a troupe of Chinese jugglers displaying their agility. Mr. Thomson in lecturing for artists and students confines himself, properly enough, to the bones and muscles that affect the structure and the external forms, but Sir Anthony loved to go deeper and to horrify his audience with pitiful remnants of humanity handed round on dinner plates, Hazlitt when he attended one of these lectures had a hard struggle to keep himself from fainting." See Review: Page
In a letter of 1823 Charles Lamb wrote:"...Carlisle is the best story teller I ever heard." Thus it seems likely any of his discussions with William Godwin and others, carried on in front of Mary Godwin, were rather better than dull and dusty lectures!
Interestingly, several other miniatures in this collection also have a link to the Wollstonecraft family!Aaron Burr, showing here, had a high regard for the writings of Mary Wollstonecraft in connection with the education of his daughter Theodosia Burr Alston. She is also showing here along with Mrs Parker, i.e. Helen Shelley, the aunt of Percy Bysshe Shelley, although there is some doubt about this, which would need comparison with a known portrait of Helen Shelley.
For more, see Unknown - portrait of Aaron Burr, Jarvis, John Wesley - portrait of Theodosia Burr Alston, and Unknown - portrait of Helen Shelley
Other Patients and Friends
Based at 12 Soho Square, Carlisle also treated the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge in 1812, and was physician to Willima Godwin and Basil Montagu, among others. Carlisle had subscribed to Coleridge's "The Friend" in 1809.
He was known also to the author Captain James Burney (1750-1821) and John Rickman (1771-1840). Rickman, a parliamentary official and statistician, was resident by 1812 at St Stephen's Court, New Palace Yard, Westminster. Rickman organized the first-ever national census in 1801.Carlisle was doctor to the artist JMW Turner (1775-1851), who presented him with this painting of "Hastings: Fish Market on the Sands, Early Morning" which is now in the Hastings Museum and Art Gallery. It was purchased in 2006 with the assistance of the Art Fund for GBP262,000. See The Art Fund - Hastings: Fish Market on the Sands, Early Morning
The painting has increased in value enormously. In the mid 19C it was owned by Charles Ford who owned both “Kenilworth Castle, a fine drawing” which sold in 1852 to W. Evans for £4 8s., and “Sands at Hastings, effect of sunset, with numerous Boats and Figures—admirably drawn” (Lot 194), which sold to J. Wilkenson for £2 4s. Wilton records the provenance of the second as “presented by Turner to Sir Anthony Carlisle, his doctor; Joseph Gillott, sale Christie's 4 May 1872, now untraced”. See Blake in the Marketplace 1852: Thomas Butts, Jr
William Hazlitt (1778-1830) attended one of Carlisle's lectures at the Royal Academy where he was Professor of Anatomy, and featured Carlisle in the "Memoirs of Thomas Holcroft", published in 1816, which Hazlitt completed after the death of dramatist Thomas Holcroft (1745-1809). Charles Lamb thought Carlisle "the best story teller I ever heard".
Literature
Although this list is probably incomplete, books, articles, and lectures written by Carlisle include;-"Observations on the Structure and Oeconomy of those Intestinal Worms called Taenia", Linnean Society, 1794
-"Account of the new Electrical or Galvanic Apparatus of Sig. Alex Volta, and Experiments performed with the same, 1800" with William Nicholson
-"A Letter to John Symmons giving Account of a Peculiarity in the Distribution of the Arteries sent to the Limbs of slow-moving Animals; together with some other similar Facts. Read Jan.9, 1800"
-"A Letter to John Symmons giving a Continuation of an Account of a peculiar Arrangement in the Arteries distributed on the Muscles of slow-moving Animals. Read Dec.8, 1803"
-"The Croonian Lecture on Muscular Motion. Read Nov.8, 1804"
-"Croonian Lecture on the Arrangement and Mechanical Action of the Muscles of Fishes, 1805"
-"An Essay on the Connection Between Anatomy and the Fine Arts, c1807"
-"The physiology of the stapes,: One of the bones of the organ of hearing."
-"An account of a family having hands and feet with supernumerary fingers and toes: In a letter addressed to ... Sir Joseph Banks ... Read December 23, 1813
-"Preliminary observations to the second volume of the Horticultural transactions, 1814"
-"On the connection between the leaves and fruit of vegetables;: With other physiological observations; in a letter to Richard Anthony Salisbury, 1816"
-"An Essay on the Disorders of Old Age, and on the means for prolonging Human Life, 1817"
-"Hunterian Oration, Feb. 1820"
-"A letter to Sir Gilbert Blane, bart. on blisters, rubifacients, and escharotics;: Giving an account of the employment of an instrument adapted to transmit ... of heat, to effect those several purposes"
-"Account of some coins found in certain Tumuli in the Southern district of the peninsula of India, 1827"
-"Alleged discovery of the use of the spleen, and of the thyroid gland, 1829"
-"Lecture on cholera and other pestilential diseases; delivered at The London Mechanics' Institution 1832"
-"Practical Observations on the Preservation of health, and the Prevention of Diseases; Comprising the Author's Experience on the Disorders of Childhood and Old Age, 1838"
-"The Means of Preserving Health and Prolonging Life, applied to Hereditary Diseases; the Affections of Children; and the Disorders of Old Age, 1841"
Carlisle in Society and the Literature
Apart from the above instances, Carlisle was a focal figure in other events and anecdotes.
A - For example, Karl Marx in "Capital" referred to Carlisle as promoting the adoption of the 1833 Factory Act, to prevent child labour in the following passage.
"A normal working-day for modern industry only dates from the Factory Act of 1833, which included cotton, wool, flax, and silk factories. Nothing is more characteristic of the spirit of capital than the history of the English Factory Acts from 1833 to 1864.
The Act of 1833 declares the ordinary factory working-day to be from half-past five in the morning to half-past eight in the evening and within these limits, a period of 15 hours, it is lawful to employ young persons (i.e., persons between 13 and 18 years of age), at any time of the day, provided no one individual young person should work more than 12 hours in any one day, except in certain cases especially provided for. The 6th section of the Act provided. “That there shall be allowed in the course of every day not less than one and a half hours for meals to every such person restricted as hereinbefore provided.” The employment of children under 9, with exceptions mentioned later was forbidden; the work of children between 9 and 13 was limited to 8 hours a day, night-work, i.e., according to this Act, work between 8:30 p.m. and 5:30 a.m., was forbidden for all persons between 9 and 18.
The law-makers were so far from wishing to trench on the freedom of capital to exploit adult labour-power, or, as they called it, “the freedom of labour,” that they created a special system in order to prevent the Factory Acts from having a consequence so outrageous.
“The great evil of the factory system as at present conducted,” says the first report of the Central Board of the Commission of June 28th 1833, “has appeared to us to be that it entails the necessity of continuing the labour of children to the utmost length of that of the adults. The only remedy for this evil, short of the limitation of the labour of adults which would, in our opinion, create an evil greater than that which is sought to be remedied, appears to be the plan of working double sets of children.”
... Under the name of System of Relays, this “plan” was therefore carried out, so that, e.g., from 5.30 a.m. until 1.30 in the afternoon, one set of children between 9 and 13, and from 1.30 p.m. to 8.30 in the evening another set were “put to,” &c.
In order to reward the manufacturers for having, in the most barefaced way, ignored all the Acts as to children’s labour passed during the last twenty-two years, the pill was yet further gilded for them. Parliament decreed that after March 1st, 1834, no child under 11, after March 1st 1835, no child under 12, and after March 1st, 1836, no child under 13 was to work more than eight hours in a factory. This “liberalism,” so full of consideration for “capital,” was the more noteworthy as. Dr. Farre, Sir A. Carlisle, Sir B. Brodie, Sir C. Bell, Mr. Guthrie, &c., in a word, the most distinguished physicians and surgeons in London, had declared in their evidence before the House of Commons, that there was danger in delay." From Economic Manuscripts: Capital Vol. I - Chapter Ten
B - Isabella Beeton referred to Carlisle's treatment for lumbago in her famous book; "The Book of Household Management" under:
LUMBAGO.—A “new and successful mode” of treating lumbago, advocated by Dr. Day, is a form of counter-irritation, said to have been introduced into this country by the late Sir Anthony Carlisle, and which consists in the instantaneous application of a flat iron button, gently heated in a spirit-lamp, to the skin.
C- In his 1989 book "Anglo-American Psychiatry in Historical Perspective", Andrew Scull commented on how Carlisle and John Bright argued that madness was a medical condition, compared to earlier views that persons displaying madness were "possessed".
Scull wrote; The profession was able to use its representation in Parliament, as well as its position as one of the three ancient learned professions, to ensure that its views received due consideration. When there was a renewed inquiry into conditions in private madhouses, it could call on the services of eminently respectable society physicians like Sir Anthony Carlisle next hit and Dr. John Bright to lend their authority to the contention that this was a medical problem. Medical certification of insanity (for private patients only) had been required by the 1774 Madhouse Act as an additional security against improper confinement of the sane, and the doctors-now sought to clarify and extend their authority in this area, so as to develop an officially approved monopoly of the right to define (mental) health and illness.
D - Another anecdote linked to Carlisle is noted in The Art of Living in Australia, by Philip E. Muskett (chapter9)
"It is evident that the natural dietary of the earth’s inhabitants is controlled largely by the particular region in which they dwell. Thus the Hindoos, and contiguous Eastern nations, subsist mainly upon the cereals, in which rice plays so prominent a part. The Greenlander’s fare, on the contrary, consists almost entirely of oils and fats; indeed, on this point Sir Anthony Carlisle relates the following anecdote:—“The most Northern races of mankind,” says he, “were found to be unacquainted with the taste of sweets, and their infants made wry faces and sputtered out sugar with disgust, but the little urchins grinned with ecstasy at the sight of a bit of whale’s blubber.” In the same way the Arab is a date-eater and the Kaffir is a milk consumer."
E- In 1794 the eminent Italian physiologist Lazzaro Spallanzani (1729-99), one of the founders of experimental biology, published a modest but heretical proposal. Long intrigued by the ability of bats to fly in total darkness without bumping into things, he set out to discover how they did it. It soon became clear to him that it was the sense of hearing that bats needed in order to avoid obstacles.
However, his opinion was only supported by a handful of researchers. One of that handful was Carlisle who, after carrying out his own experiments, concluded that flying bats avoided obstacles "owing to extreme acuteness of hearing". However, science refused to accept this until the early 20C, see Skeptical Observer - How Skepticism Blocks Progress
Had Spallanzani [or Carlisle] been taken seriously, how much sooner might we have discovered radar? asked the late Eric Laithwaite. It would only have to have been invented five or ten years earlier to have possibly saved the more than 1,500 lives lost when the Titanic hit an iceberg in 1912.1350
Nicholas Carlisle
The younger half-brother of Anthony Carlisle was also prominent in the 19C. He was Nicholas Carlisle FRS (1770-27 Aug 1847). For over 40 years he was one of the Secretaries of the Society of Antiquaries. Nicholas was in the city of York where he was baptized in the church of Bishophill the Younger on the 8th Feb 1771.
Their grandfather married first Miss Elizabeth Hutchinson an immediate descendant from Colonel Hutchinson who defended Nottingham Castle and secondly Susanna Skottowe to whose father Captain Cook the celebrated circumnavigator owed his education. Her sister Anne was the wife of Robert Wood esq the author of the Essay on Homer and of magnificent works on the ruins of Palmyra and Balbec.
There are conflicting reports of who was their mother, but it seems most likely that the mother of Nicholas and Anthony Carlisle was Barbara Hubback. After receiving a humble education from the Rev James Lawson at West Witton in Yorkshire Nicholas Carlisle entered the naval service of the East India Company in which he attained the post of purser.
Enjoying opportunities of private trade he amassed a considerable sum of money, most of which he expended as joint housekeeper with his brother to whom he was much attached and whom he assisted at the commencement of his professional career.
Amongst other accomplishments, Nicholas Carlisle authored a number of publications, including "A Memoir of the Life and Works of William Wyon, .. - Google Books Result about the Chief Engraver of the Royal Mint. See also his obituary at The Gentleman's Magazine - Google Books Result 1350
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