FORSTER (John Reinhold, L.L.D.) professor of natural history in the university of Halle, member of the academy of sciences at Berlin, and of other learned societies, was born at Dirfschau, in West Prussia, in the month of October 1729, and was formerly a Protestant clergyman at Dantzick. He had a numerous family, and the emoluments of his office were slender. He therefore quitted Dantzick, and went, first to Russia, and thence to England, in quest of a better settlement than his own country afforded. In the dissenting academy at Warrington he was appointed tutor in the modern languages, with the occasional office of lecturing in various branches of natural history. For the first department he was by no means well qualified; his extraordinary knowledge of languages, ancient and modern, being unaccompanied by a particle of taste; and his use of them being all barbarous, though fluent. As a natural historian, a critic, geographer, and antiquary, he ranked much higher; but, unfortunately, these were acquisitions of little value in his academical department.
At length he obtained the appointment of naturalist and philosopher (if the word may be so used) to the second voyage of discovery undertaken by Capt. Cook; and from 1772 to 1775 he accompanied that immortal navigator round the world. On his return he resided in London, till the improper conduct of himself and his son made it expedient for them both to leave the kingdom. Fortunately he received an invitation to Halle, where, for 18 years, he was a member of the philosophical and medical faculties. Among his works are: An Introduction to Mineralogy, or, An accurate Classification of Fossils and Minerals, &c. London, 1768, 8vo. A Catalogue of the Animals of North America, with short Directions for collecting, preserving, and transporting all kinds of Natural Curiosities, London, 1771, 8vo. Observations made during a Voyage round the World, on Physical Geography, &c. London, 1778. He was the author of a great many productions in English, Latin, or German, and of several papers in the Philosophical Transactions. He translated into English, Bougainville's Voyage round the World, and Kalm's, Bosu's, and Reidel's Travels. He was employed likewise, when in England, in the Critical Review; and he wrote various detached papers on different subjects, which have been inserted in foreign journals and the transactions of learned academies.
He died at Halle on the 16th of December 1798, in the 70th year of his age.