William Benjamin Carpenter (1813-1885), British naturalist. Carpenter trained as a physician, but published widely in many fields. His influential works included a study of arthropod ventral cord ganglia, and theories of brain function. He later described and classified the Foraminifera (marine single-celled organisms). In oceanography, he laid out a doctrine of general oceanic circulation and helped plan the government-sponsored voyage of marine exploration by HMS Challenger (1873- 1876). He was among the last of the truly general naturalists of the 19th century, and an important supporter of Darwin's principles of natural selection.