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 Elisabeth 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 Saratoff on the Volga; but Forster, not satisfied with his success in the undertaking, in 1766 resolved to try his fortune in England, whither 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 Linnaeus and his son, the latter of whom gave the name of Forsteria 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; and 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 Valgensi, Phil. Trans., 1767, p. 312, containing a description of the country about Saratov. An Introduction to Mineralogy, 8vo, Lond. 1789; with a Translation of Lehmann's Histoteknia. 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. Obeck's Voyage to China and the East Indies, translated from the German; with a Formula and Forma Sinensis, 2 vols. 8vo, Lond. 1771. A Translation of Bossu's Voyages en Louisiane, with Notes, and a Systematic Catalogue of all the known Plants of English North America; together with an Account of Löffling's Travels, 2 vols. 8vo, Lond. 1771. Novae Species Insectorum, Centuria 1, 8vo, Lond. 1771; consisting chiefly of English insects. An Account Forster, John George Adam, commonly called George, a distinguished naturalist and circumnavigator, the son of John Reinhold Forster, was born at Danzig in 1754, and enjoyed, in his earliest youth, the advantage of his father's assiduous and affectionate instructions, by which he profited so rapidly, that he was capable, at the age of ten years, when he went with his father into Russia, of ascertaining the species of a plant by comparing it with the Linnaean description. He was for a short time at a school in Petersburg. Upon his arrival in London, he was at first placed in a merchant's counting-house, but soon found his health unequal to the employment, and followed his father to Warrington, where he continued his studies at the academy with so much application, that he became a perfect master of the English language, and otherwise distinguished himself by the strength of his memory and the vigour of his imagination, at the same time that he assisted his father in giving lessons in French, and in completing a variety of translations of voyages and travels. He also accompanied his father, together with Sparman, in the arduous engagement of making all kinds of physical observations in the circumnavigation of the globe; and he was particularly employed in delineating the various objects of natural history which were discovered. After his return he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society; but he soon quitted England to settle at Paris. In 1779, however, he was appointed professor of natural history at Cassel; and in 1784 he was nominated to a similar situation in the university of Wilna, where he took a degree of doctor of physic; but he found little satisfaction in residing amongst a people so imperfectly civilized. The Empress of Russia had engaged him to take an important part in a new voyage of discovery which she meditated; but the design was abandoned upon the commencement of the war with the Turks. He was next invited by the Elector of Mentz to accept the appointment of president of the university newly established in that city, and he was residing there at the time when the French army entered it. Being a declared republican in his political principles, he was despatched as an envoy to Paris to solicit the incorporation of Mentz with the French republic; but during his absence the Prussian troops retook the city, and he lost the whole of his property, including his numerous manuscripts. He had married a Miss Theresa Hayne, and had one daughter as early as 1788; but, at a subsequent period, his wife's conduct gave him great reason for uneasiness; and though he affected to despise what he called the prejudices of social life, and to excuse her infidelity; and even attempted to facilitate her union with a more favoured admirer, still the affair in reality affected him deeply, and he resolved once more to leave Europe, as if in search of the waters of oblivion; and he was actually preparing for a voyage to Thibet, when his health was subdued by the ravages of a scorbutic disorder, and he died on the 13th February 1792. Besides the assistance which he rendered his father in many of his literary undertakings, he was also the author of a variety of separate publications under his own name.

1. A Voyage Round the World in His Britannic Majesty's Ship Resolution, commanded by Captain James Cook, during the years 1772, 1773, 1774, and 1775, 2 vols., 4to, London, 1777; in German, 2 vols., 4to, Berlin, 1779, 1780, and 3 vols., 8vo, 1784. The style of this work is rather more animated and poetical than that of the official account of the voyage; the second volume is considered as the best written, and the freest from affectation and false sentiment. 2. Mr. Wales, the astronomer of the expedition, published some remarks on the work, which occasioned a reply to Mr. Wales's Remarks, 8vo, London, 1778, in which the author declares that his father had no concern whatever in the book, but he admits that he had committed some inaccuracies. 3. A Letter to the Earl of Sandwich, 4to, London, 1784. His Astronomical and other scientific journal of Geotropism exhibits considerable warmth of language, but candidly admits some errors; it excited further animadversions from Professor Meissner, who declared himself the author of the criticisms. 5. In 1787 he published at Berlin, in 4to, A Translation of Captain Cook's Third Voyage, performed in 1776–1780, with an introduction and other additions. 6. A Description of the Gentiana saxosa, Swedish Transl., 1777, p. 183. 7. Life of Dr. Dodd, 8vo, Berlin, 1772. 8. Preface to Sparman's Travels, 8vo, Berlin, 1784. 9. He undertook, together with Professor Lichtenberg, the publication of the Göttingen Magazine, which was commenced from 1780 to 1785, and published in it, amongst other essays, A Description of the Red Creeper, or Certhia coccinea of Okenhuy, i. vi., p. 346. 10. Experiments with Vital Air, vol. iii., ii., p. 281; examining its effects on glow-worms. 11. A Decade of New Plants, N. Act. Upsal, vol. iii., 1780, p. 171. 12. On Pygmaea, Hoszische Beyträge, vol. i., p. 1, 1785. 13. History and Description of the Bread-Fruit Tree, p. 208, 384; also separately, 4to, Cassel, 1784. 14. Florulae Indicae et Australis Prodromus, 8vo, Göttingen, 1788. 15. Variae Plantarum Magellanicarum, Commentat. Soc. Gott., vol. ix., p. 13. 16. Plantae Atlanticae, p. 45. 17. Miscellanies, or Essays on Moral and Physical Geography, Natural History, and Moral Philosophy, 6 vols., 8vo, Leipzig, and Berlin, 1789–1797; the last two volumes are posthumous, and chiefly of a political nature. 18. Pictures of the Lower Rhine, Brabant, Flanders, Holland, England, and France, taken in the year 1790, 3 vols., 8vo, Berlin, 1791–1794; Dutch, Haarlem, 1792, 1793; French, called Voyage Philosophique, 2 vols., 8vo, Paris, 1795, 1793. This work contains many interesting remarks on manners and on the arts, showing that the author possessed very extensive information, as well as originality of talent; but there is too much affectation of sentiment, and an injudicious display of hostility to Great Britain. 19. Historical Remembrances Fort Vitrified Forts.

of the Year 1790, Svo, Berlin, 1793. There are also several political pamphlets of a temporary nature, which could add little or nothing to their author's fame; and a few scattered memoirs in different periodical publications. He was also concerned in the Collection of Voyages published by Professor Sprengel; and, together with Pallas and others, in an edition of Martini's Dictionary of Natural History. Indeed, his life, though short, was one continued scene of literary activity; but his application to the labour of compilation was too unremitting to allow him to concentrate the whole force of his mind on the performance of any one original work of genius. The Sketches of the Mythology and Customs of the Hindoos were written by another author of the same name.

(Loc. by Poeppig; J. R. Forster in Jacob's Annals, and in the Dedication of his Encyclopaedia; Byres in Biographie Universelle, vol. xv., Svo, Paris, 1816; Alkin's General Biography, vol. iv., 4to, London, 1808; Chalmers's Biographical Dictionary, vol. xiii., Svo, London, 1814.)