FORSTER, JOHN REINHOLD

FORSTER, JOHN REINHOLD, a celebrated naturalist and geographer, and an accomplished scholar and linguist, born Oct. 22, 1729, at Dirschau in Polish Prussia, where his father was burgomaster or mayor. His family was of English descent, and had quitted Great Britain in the time of Charles I. At the age of fourteen he was placed for a year at the public school of Marienwerder, and was afterwards admitted into the gymnasium of Joachimsthal at Berlin, where among his schoolfellows was Pallas the celebrated naturalist. Forster applied with diligence to the study of the ancient and modern languages, and in particular of the oriental languages; and he continued the same pursuits at the university of Halle, which he entered in 1748. After three years, having completed his theological studies, he resided for two years more at Danzig, preaching as a candidate. In 1753 he obtained a small benefice at the neighbouring town of Nassenhuben; and the next year he married his cousin Elizabeth Nikolai. The expenses of his increasing family induced him to accept the proposals of the Russian consul at Danzig to superintend the establishment of the new colonies at Saratof on the Volga; but Forster, not satisfied with his success in the undertaking, in 1766 resolved to try his fortune in England, whether he proceeded well recommended but with exhausted

finances. Soon afterwards, however, he received a gratuity of 100 guineas from the Russian government, and he obtained some remuneration from the booksellers for his translations from the German and the Swedish. He declined an offer of Lord Baltimore to manage his estates in America, preferring the appointment of a teacher of modern languages and natural history in the dissenting academy of Warrington. He was not, however, very popular as an instructor. In 1772 he was appointed naturalist to the expedition under the command of Captain Cook, in his second voyage of circumnavigation; and he took with him his son George, then seventeen years old. For this undertaking Forster was abundantly qualified as a man of science and an accurate observer, though his temper and conduct were not always such as to make him agreeable to his shipmates, nor was he uniformly considerate and humane in his intercourse with the uncivilized inhabitants of the countries he explored. After the return of the expedition, there were repeated disputes respecting Forster's share in the intended publication of the narrative of the voyage. Two thousand pounds, which had been granted by government for the plates of the work, were to have been equally divided between Cook and Forster for this purpose; but Forster's performance of his part of the undertaking was disapproved, and he was deprived of the advantage which he expected to have derived from the plates. He was supposed to be concerned in the account of the voyage which was published by his son; and this participation was generally considered as an infringement of the conditions of his engagement; besides that many offensive remarks and a few inaccuracies were introduced into the work. All these circumstances made Forster's residence in England by no means agreeable, and his pecuniary embarrassments became so pressing that he was at one time in confinement for debt. He was, however, set at liberty in 1780, by the munificence of the king of Prussia, who paid his debts and established him at Halle as professor of natural history, and inspector of the botanical garden. The following year he took the degree of M.D. in the university. He was not always on the most cordial terms with his academical colleagues, and his circumstances were also much embarrassed by his unfortunate propensity to play, which absorbed his whole earnings. The premature death of his two sons seriously affected his health, and he died on the 9th December 1798. His life has been written by Professor Kurt Sprengel, but in a manner somewhat too flattering with regard to Forster's moral character. He appears to have been master of seventeen languages; and he was as extensively acquainted with things as with words, being as much indebted for his various knowledge to his industrious and accurate observation of nature, as to his great reading and his profound learning. He was long intimate with Buffon, and was in constant correspondence with Linnæus and his son, the latter of whom gave the name of Forstera to a new genus of plants. In conversation he was witty, but too satirical; and his unguarded sallies created him many enemies. He became a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries soon after his arrival in England; in Feb. 1772 was elected a fellow of the Royal Society; and in 1775 he received the honorary diploma of LL.D. from the university of Oxford.

His principal publications are as follows:—Specimen Historiae Naturalis Volgensis, Phil. Trans. 1767, p. 312, containing a description of the country about Saratof. An Introduction to Mineralogy, 8vo, Lond. 1768; with a Translation of Lehmann's Halotechnia. A Catalogue of British Insects, 8vo, Warrington, 1770. A Translation of Kalm's Travels into North America, 3 vols. 8vo, Warrington and Lond., 1770, 1771. Osbeck's Voyage to China and the East Indies, translated from the German; with a Pannula and Piera Sinensis, 2 vols. 8vo, Lond. 1771. A Translation of Bosc's Travels in Louisiana, with Notes, and a Systematic Catalogue of all the known Plants of English North America; together with an Abstract of Löfling's Travels, 2 vols. 8vo, Lond. 1771. Novæ Species Insectorum, Centuria 1, 8vo, Lond. 1771; consisting chiefly of English insects. An Account

Forster, of the management of Carp in Polish Prussia, Phil. Trans. 1771, p. 310. An Easy Method of Asaying and Classing Mineral Substances, with a Translation of Scheele's Experiments on Sperry Fluor, Svo, Lond. 1772. Translation of Bougainville's Voyage, 4to, Lond. 1772. Epistola ad J. D. Michellis, 4to, Göttin. 1772, containing remarks on this author's Spicilegium Geographiae Exterae. An Account of the Roots used by the Indians in the neighbourhood of Hudson's Bay to dye Porcupine's Quills, Phil. Trans. 1772, p. 54; the Gallium tinctorium and Helleborus trifolius. An Account of Several Quadrupeds from Hudson's Bay, Phil. Trans. 1772, p. 370. An Account of the Birds sent from Hudson's Bay, p. 382. An Account of some Curious Fishes sent from Hudson's Bay, Phil. Trans. 1773, p. 149. Translation of Grainger's Travels and Riedesel's Travels. Catalogue of the Animals and Plants represented in Catesby's Carolina, with the Linnaean names. Characters generum plantarum, quas in itinere ad insulas maris australis collegit J. R. et G. Forster, fol. Lond. 1776, containing descriptions and figures of 75 new genera. Liber singularis, de Byssis antiquorum, quo ex Aegyptiaca lingua res vestitaria antiquorum, Svo, Lond. 1776. The object of this essay is to prove that the byssus of the ancients was cotton, not linen. Observations made during a Voyage Round the World, on Physical Geography, Natural History, and Ethic Philosophy, 4to, Lond. 1778. A French translation of this interesting work was added as a fifth volume to that of Cook's Voyage, 4to, Paris, 1778. Description of the Yerba Capensis, Svo, Lond. 1778, p. 108. Translation of Von Troll's Letters on Iceland, Svo, Lond. 1780. On Buffon's Epochs of Nature, Göttin. Mag. 1780, l. i. p. 140. On the Tiger-Cat of the Cape, Phil. Trans. 1781, p. 1; the Felis Capensis, found from Congo to the Cape, and capable of being tamed like a cat. Historia Astenodytor, Commentat. Göttin. vol. iii., p. 121. Zoologia Indica Selecta, Latin and German, fol. Halle, 1781, 4to, Lond. 1790; 2d edit. Halle, 1795. Account of a New Insect, Naturforscher, vol. xvii. p. 206, Halle, 1782; a species of cancer. A Picture of England for 1780, continued to 1783, Svo, 1784; German, Svo, Dessau, 1784; giving some particulars of many of the principal public characters at the time of the American war. Essays on Moral and Physical Geography, 3 vols. Svo, Leips. 1781, 1783; continued by his son-in-law Matthias Sprengel. A Collection of Memoirs relating to Domestic Economy and Technology, Svo, Halle, 1784. On the Abattoir, Mém. Sav. Étr. vol. x. p. 563; the Diomedæa. History of Discoveries and Voyages in the North, Svo, Francfort on the Oder, 1784; English, Lond. 1786, Fr. Paris, 1788. Project for abolishing Mendicity, especially at Halle, Svo, Halle, 1786. Eucheridion Historiae Naturalis inveniens, Svo, Halle, 1788. A Memoir on the Badger Cat. Mém. Acad. Berl. 1788, 1789, p. 90; the Manis pentadactylus. Magazine of Modern Voyages and Travels, translated from various Languages, with Remarks, 16 vols. Svo, Halle, 1790, 1798. An edition of Bergius über die Leckerzeugen, a work on diet, with notes by Forster, Kurt, and Sprengel, 2 vols. Svo, Halle, 1792. A Letter to Schræter on the Persea, Magazin für die Botanik, vol. v. p. 234. Onomatologia nova systematica oryctogenosia vocabulis Latinis expressa, fol. Halle, 1795, 1 page. Observations and Truths united to Probabilities, or Materials for a new Essay on the Theory of the Earth, Svo, Leips. 1798. (Sprengel's Memoir; Eyrles in Biographie Universelle, vol. xv. Svo, Paris, 1816; Aikin's General Biography, vol. iv. 4to, Lond. 1803; Chalmers's Biographical Dictionary, vol. xiii. Svo, Lond. 1814.) (T.Y.)