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Robert Howell Perks (June 1854 – 11 February 1929) was an English naturalist, physician and anti-vivisection activist.
Robert H. Perks | |
|---|---|
| Born | Robert Howell Perks June 1854 Monkton Combe, England |
| Died | 11 February 1929 (aged 74) London, England |
| Alma mater | Guy's Hospital |
| Occupation(s) | Naturalist, physician, activist |
| Spouse |
Frances Mary Tregaskis
(m. 1889) |
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]
Anti-vivisection
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
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]
- Why I Condemn Vivisection (1904)
- Disease and Vivisectional Research (1909)
- Appendicitis and Vegetarianism (1926)
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