Henry Cadwalader Chapman

Dr. Henry Cadwalader Chapman (August 17, 1845 – September 7, 1909) was an American physician and naturalist. Early life Chapman was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Henry was the son of George W. Chapman, lieutenant in the United States Army, and Emily, granddaughter of Abraham Markoe, first captain of the Philadelphia City Troop. His grandfather was Dr. Nathaniel Chapman, the founding president of the American Medical Association. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1864 and then matriculated into the medical department. In 1867 he took his M. D. with a thesis on "Generation." He entered the Pennsylvania Hospital, first as an assistant in the apothecary shop, and later as a resident physician, but in 1869 went to Europe for three years' study with Sir Richard Owen, London; Alphonse Milne-Edwards, Paris; Emil du Bois-Reymond, Berlin; and Josef Hyrtl, Vienna. Career On his return from Europe he prepared for publication his first work, The Evolution of Life, issued in 1872. Joseph Leidy, and the naturalist Timothy Abbott Conrad were his warm friends, and sponsors for his election to the Academy of Natural Sciences, to the proceedings of which he often contributed. He became a director of the Zoological Society of Philadelphia in 1881, was its secretary in 1884 and corresponding secretary 1890–1904. He was elected as a member of the American Philosophical Society in 1875.