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Robert H. Perks
Born
Robert Howell Perks

June 1854
Monkton Combe, England
Died11 February 1929 (aged 74)
London, England
Alma materGuy's Hospital
Occupation(s)Naturalist, physician, activist
Spouse
Frances Mary Tregaskis
​
​
(m. 1889)​

Robert Howell Perks (June 1854 – 11 February 1929) was an English naturalist, physician and anti-vivisection activist.

Biography

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Perks was born in June 1854.[1] He was the eldest son of Henry Perks of Monkton Combe.[2] He was educated at Guy's Hospital where he was house physician and surgeon.[3] He was appointed resident medical officer at Royal Albert Hospital. He qualified MRCS in 1881, FRCS in 1884 and LRCP in 1882.[3] Perks married Frances Mary Tregaskis in October 1889.[2]

In 1890, he became medical superintendent and principal executive officer of Adelaide Hospital in South Australia.[4] He resigned in 1895. After his resignation he became medical attendant and private secretary to Sir Thomas Elder at Birksgate, Glen Osmond.[5] After the death of Elder in 1897, he returned to England with his wife and settled in Torquay.[3][5] Perks was a naturalist and ornithologist. In 1893, he worked with Edward Charles Stirling Director of the South Australian Museum.[5] He was chairman of the Field Naturalists Society of South Australia in 1895.[6] In 1897, he was thanked by the museum for his gift of a number of photographs of bird nests.[5] He also donated aboriginal skeleton remains and insects.[5] The Natural History Museum purchased 197 of his bird skin specimens.[7]

A species of sea snail Surcula perksi was named after Perks in 1896.[8] In 1898, he was elected a member of the Malacological Society of London.[9]

Perks died on 11 February 1929 at Guy's Hospital, London.[10] He was buried on 15 February in Camden.[11]

Activism

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Anti-vivisection

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Perks was an opponent of vivisection on ethical grounds. He considered it a criminal offense.[12] He authored Why I Condemn Vivisection, first published in The Herald of the Golden Age in 1904 which went through seven editions. He commented that "I condemn vivisection because it is productive of a vast amount of severe suffering to animals without any corresponding advantage to them".[13] He was a vice-president of the International Anti-Vivisection and Animal Protection Congress and attended meetings in July 1909.[14][15][16]

Perks was a speaker at meetings of the London Anti-Vivisection Society and British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection with Walter Hadwen.[17][18][19]

Vegetarianism

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Perks became a vegetarian in 1898 and was a speaker at Vegetarian Society conferences.[20][21][22] In the early 1900s, Perks was elected a member of the Order of the Golden Age's General Council and was its Honorary Secretary. He wrote articles supportive of a vegetarian diet for their journal Herald of the Golden Age.[23] In 1907, thirteen medical men including Perks signed a manifesto stating that vegetarianism is "scientifically a sound and satisfactory system of dietetics" and superior to health than meat eating.[24] In 1914, Perks argued for vegetarianism from an ethical basis, commenting that it is the duty of humanitarians to regard animals as friends and not a food source.[25]

Selected publications

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References

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  1. ^ "Index entry". FreeBMD. ONS. Retrieved 21 September 2024.
  2. ^ a b "Medical News". The British Medical Journal. 2 (1503): 904–906. 1889. JSTOR 20221164.
  3. ^ a b c "Perks, Robert Howell (1855 - 1929)". Royal College of Surgeons of England. 2012. Archived from the original on September 20, 2024.
  4. ^ "Fights by doctors and board plus crowding and sanitation concerns blight Adelaide Hospital in the 19th Century". 2024. Archived from the original on March 2, 2024.
  5. ^ a b c d e Whittell, Hubert Massey. (1954). The Literature of Australian Birds: A History and a Bibliography of Australian Ornithology. Paterson Brokensha. p. 581
  6. ^ "Field Naturalist's Section of the Royal Society of South Australia". Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia. 19 (2): 289–290. 1895.
  7. ^ Carpenter, Graham (2022). "The Spotted Bowerbird Chlamydera maculata in South Australia" (PDF). South Australian Ornithologist. 47 (1): 22–32.
  8. ^ Verco, J. C. (1896). "Descriptions of new species of marine Mollusca of South Australia". Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia. 20 (1): 224–225.
  9. ^ "Ordinary Meeting: Friday, 14TH January, 1898" (PDF). Proceedings of the Malacological Society of London. 3 (1): 62. 1898.
  10. ^ Principal Probate Registry; London, England; Calendar of the Grants of Probate and Letters of Administration made in the Probate Registries of the High Court of Justice in England
  11. ^ "Robert Howell Perks". Deceased Online. Retrieved 2024-09-21.
  12. ^ Bates, A. W. H. (2017). Anti-Vivisection and the Profession of Medicine in Britain: A Social History. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 83. ISBN 978-1-137-55696-7
  13. ^ To Prohibit Experiments Upon Living Dogs. United States Government Printing Office, 1938. p. 27
  14. ^ "International Antivivisection Congress". The British Medical Journal. 2 (2533): 158–160. 1909. JSTOR 25282843.
  15. ^ Proceedings of the International Anti-Vivisection and Animal Protection Congress, held at Washington, D.C., December 8th to 11th, 1913. The Tudor Press, 1914.
  16. ^ "Anti-Vivisectionist and Cancer Research". The Newcastle Daily Chronicle. July 9, 1909. p. 3. (subscription required)
  17. ^ "London Anti-Vivisection Society, East Devon Branch". The Teignmouth Post. February 12, 1904. p. 5. (subscription required)
  18. ^ "Bristol Anti-Vivisection Campaign". South Bristol Free Press. October 23, 1911. p. 2. (subscription required)
  19. ^ "British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection". Morning Leader. October 24, 1911. p. 4. (subscription required)
  20. ^ "Conference of the Vegetarian Society". The Cheltenham Examiner. May 2, 1906. p. 4. (subscription required)
  21. ^ "The Vegetarian Society: Meetings in Bristol". The Western Daily Press. May 5, 1909. p. 3. (subscription required)
  22. ^ "Excessive Meat-Eaters Less Refined". Luton Times. October 17, 1913. p. 2. (subscription required)
  23. ^ "Moderate Vegetarians". The British Medical Journal. 2 (2182): 1359–1360. 1902. JSTOR 20274045.
  24. ^ "Vegetarian Diet". Tyrone Courier. September 12, 1907. p. 6. (subscription required)
  25. ^ "The Humanitarian Side". The Looker-On. May 30, 1914. p. 12. (subscription required)
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