CARUS

carus, karl gustav (1789-1869), german physiologist and psychologist, distinguished also as an art critic and a landscape painter, was born and educated at leipzig. after a course in chemistry, he began the systematic study of medicine and in 1811 became a _privat docent_. on the subject which he selected (comparative anatomy) no lectures had previously been given at leipzig, and carus soon established a reputation as a medical teacher. in the war of 1813 he was director of the military hospital at pfaffendorf, near leipzig, and in 1814 professor to the new medical college at dresden, where he spent the remainder of his life. he was made royal physician in 1827, and a privy councillor in 1862. he died on the 28th of july 1869. in philosophy carus belonged to the school of schelling, and his works are thoroughly impregnated with the spirit of that system. he regarded inherited tendency as a proof that the cell has a certain psychic life, and pointed out that individual differences are less marked in the lower than in the higher organisms. of his many works the most important are:--_grundzuge der vergleichenden anatomic und physiologie_ (dresden, 1828); _system der physiologie_ (2nd ed., 1847-1849); _psyche: zur entwickelungsgeschichte der seele_ (1846, 3rd ed. stuttgart, 1860); _physis, zur geschichte des leiblichen lebens_ (stuttgart, 1851); _natur und idee_ (vienna, 1861); _symbolik des menschlichen gestalts_ (leipz., 1853, 2nd ed., 1857); _atlas der kranioskopie_ (2nd ed. leipz., 1864); _vergleichende psychologie_ (vienna, 1866). see his autobiography, _lebenserinnerungen und denkwurdigkeiten_ (4 vols., 1865-1866); k. von reichenbach, _odische erwiederungen an die herren professoren fortlage ... und hofrath carus_ (1856). his _england und schottland im jahre 1844_ was translated by s.c. davison (1846).