FORSTER (Jout; REINHOLD), a celebrated natu. ralist and geographer, and an accomplished scholar and linguist, was born 22d October 1729, at Dir schaw in Polish Prussia, where his father was burgo master or mayor. His family was of English de scent, and had quitted Great Britain in the times 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 Ber lin; among his schoolfellows was Pallas, who became so well known for his various researches in natural history, with several others who distinguished them selves in literature and science. He applied himself with diligence to the study of the ancient and mo dern languages, and in particular of the oriental lan guages, as connected with divinity. He continued the same pursuits at the university of Halle, where he went in 1748. After three years, having com pleted his theological studies, he resided for two years more at Dantzic, preaching as a candidate. In 1753 he obtained a small benefice at the neigh bouring town of Nassenhuben ; the next year he married his cousin Elizabeth Nikolai ; but he still found leisure to improve himself in natural philoso phy, geography, and the mathematics. His increas ing family having become too expensive for his in come, he accepted the proposals of the Russian con sul at Dantzic, and agreed to superintend the es tablishment of the new colonies at Saratof on the Volga. The consul received the thanks of the reign ing favourite, Count Orlof, for his judicious selection of a person so well qualified ; but our adventurer was not satisfied with his success in the undertaking, and, in 1766, he resolved, somewhat suddenly, to try his fortune in England, where he went well recommend ed, but with exhausted finances. Soon afterwards, however, he received a gratuity of 100 guineas from the Russian government, and he obtained some re muneration from the booksellers for his translations from the German and the Swedish. He declined a proposal of Lord Baltimore, who offered him the ma nagement of his large estates in America, preferring the appointment of a teacher of modern languages and natural history in the dissenting Academy of Warrington, where he found a more interesting so ciety than would have been attainable in any part of the New World. He was not, however, very popu lar as an instructor ; and he was soon after this en gaged to accompany Mr Dalrymple, who was going out as Governor of Balambanjan, near Borneo; but the plan was never executed. In 1772 he was appointed naturalist to the expedition under the command of Captain Cook in his second circumnavigation ; and he took with him his son George, then 17 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 which he explored. After the return of the expe dition, there were repeated discussions and disputes respecting Forster's share in the intended publica tion 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 under taking was disapproved, and he was deprived of the advantage which he expected to have derived from the plates. It is possible that he may have express ed himself incautiously respecting the conduct of the expedition ; perhaps also he may have been thought deficient in accuracy of idiom ; for he was more fluent, than correct or elegant, in the various languages which he was in the habit of speaking and writing. He was, however, supposed to be concern ed in the account of the voyage which was published by his son; and this participation was considered by his opponents, and even by many of his friends, as an infringement of the conditions of his engagement ; besides that many offensive remarks and a few inac curacies were introduced into the work, some of which were afterwards candidly admitted and cor rected by his son. All these circumstances made Forster's residence in England by no means agree able, 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 furnish ed him with the means of satisfying his creditors, and established him at Halle, as Professor of Natural History, and Inspector of the Botanical Garden. The year after, lie took the degree of Doctor of Physic in the university. He was not always on the most cordial terms with his academical colleagues, and he was too fond of accusing them in his reports to his superiors. His circumstances were also much embarrassed by his unfortunate propensity to play, which absorbed the whole earnings of his labour. He, however, considered the eighteen years that he spent at Halle as the happiest of his life. He was much af flicted in his old age by the premature death of his two sons ; his health seemed to be impaired by his grief, and he died the 9th December 1798. Profes sor Kurt Sprengel has written an account of his life, containing a just encomium of his various talents and acquirements, though somewhat too flattering with regard to his moral character. He appears to have been master of seventeen different languages ; and he was as extensively acquainted with things as with words ; being as much indebted for his various know ledge to his industrious and accurate observation of nature, as to his great reading and his profound learn ing. He was long intimate with Buffon, and greatly admired his writings ; and he was in constant corre spondence with Linne and his sin; the latter gave the name of Forstera to a new genus of plants, in compliment to the two botanists who had discovered it in New Zealand. In conversation he was witty, but frequently too satirical ; and his unguarded sal lies created him many enemies. He became a Fel low of the Society of Antiquaries soon after his ar rival in England ; in February 1772 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society; and, in 1775, upon his return from the South Seas, the University of Oxford conferred on him the honorary diploma of a Doctor of Laws. His principal publications are these: 1. Specimen Histories Naturalis Volgensis, Ph. Tr. 1767, p. 312, containing a geographical description of the country about Saratof, and an ample enume ration of its various productions. 2. An Introduc
tion to Mineralogy, or an accurate Clas8cation of Fossils and Minerals, 8vo. London, 1768 ; with a Translation of Lehman's Halotechnia, intended prin cipally as a text book for a course of lectures de livered at Warrington. 3. A Catalogue of British Insects, 8vo. Warrington, 1770. 4. A Translation of Kahn's Travels into North America, 3 vols. 8vo. Warrington and London, 1770, 1771. 5. Osbeck's Voyage to China and the East Indies, translated from the German ; with a Faunsila and Flora Sinensis, 2 vols. 8vo. London, 1771. 6. A Translation of Boa Travels in Louisiana, with Notes, and a Systema tic Catalogue of all the known Plants of English North America ; together, with an Abstract of Liiffing's Travels, 2 vols. 8vo. London, 1771. 7. Noyes Spe cits Insectorum, Centuria I. 8vo. London, 1771 ; consisting chiefly of English insects, together with a few foreign ones, arranged according to the Lin nean system, with the adoption of two genera from Geoffroy. 8. An Account of the Management of Carp in Polish Prussia, Ph. Tr. 1771, p. 310, in a letter to the Honourable Deities Barrington : it appears that the carp is a kind of staple commodity of that country. 9. An Easy .Method of Assaying and Class ing Mineral Substances, with a Translation of Scheele's Experiments on Sparry Fluor,from the Memoir's of the Swedish Academy, 8vo. London, 1772. 10. Trans lation of Bougainville's Voyage, 4to. London, 1772. 11. Epistolae ad J. D. Michaelis, 4to. Gotting 1772, containing remarks on this author's Spicile gium Geographiae Exterae. 12. An Account of the Roots used by the Indians in the neighbourhood of Hudson's Bay to dye Porcupines' quills, Phil. Tr. 1772, p. 54. ; the Galium tinctorium, and Hellebo rus trifolius. 13. An Account of several Quadru peds from Hudson's Bay, Phil. Tr. 1772, p. 370 ; describing a Collection of Specimens sent to the Royal Society from the Factory at Hudson's Bay. 14. An Account of Me Birds sent from Hudson's Bay, p. 382. 15. An Account of some Curious Fishes sent from Hudson's Bay, Phil. Tr. 1773, p. 14.9, address ed to T. Pennant, Esq. : these papers were publish ed during the author's absence with Captain Cook. 16. 17. He translated Grainger's Travels and Rie desel's Travels in conjunction with his son, George. 18. He made a Catalogue of the Animals and Plants represented in Catesby's Carolina, with the Linnean names. 19. Characteres generum plantarum, quas in iiinere ad insulas marls australis collegerunt J. R. et G. Forster, folio, London, 1776 ; containing de scriptions and figures of 75 new genera. 20. Li ber singularis, de Bysso antiquorum, quo ex iEgyp tia lingua res vestiaria antiquorum, imprimis in sacro codice occurrens explicatur, 8vo. London, 1776. The object of this essay is to prove, that the byssus of the ancients was cotton and not fine linen, in which the author succeeds without diffi culty ; and he states, that all the cloths enveloping the mummies, that he has been able to examine, are uniformly cotton. In his Egyptian etymologies he is learned and ingenious, but, like almost all other Egyptian etymologists, extremely precipitate. 21. Observations, made during a Voyage Round the World, on Physical Geography, Natural History, and Ethic Philosophy, especially on the Earth and its Strata, Water, and the Ocean, the Atmosphere, the Changes of the Globe, Organic Bodies, and the Human Species, 4to. London, 1778. This highly interesting work was published by subscription : a French translation of it was added as a 5th volume to that of Cook's Voyage, 4to. Paris, 1778. 22, Description of the Yerbua Capensis, Swed. Trans. 1778, p. 108. 23. Translation of Von Troil'a Letters on Iceland, 8vo. London, 1780. 24, an Bulfon's Epochs of Nature, Giitting. Mag. 1780, I. i. p. 140. 25. On the Tiger Cat of the Cape, Phil. Tr. 1781, p. 1 : the Felis Capensis, found from Congo to the Cape, and capa ble of being tamed like a cat. 26. Historic Apten odite, Commentat. Gott. Vol. III. p. 121, the pen gum, a genus peculiar to the southern hemisphere. 27. Zoologic Indira. Selecta, Latin and German, fol. Halle, 1781, 4to. London, 1790; 2d edit. Halle, 1793. 28. Account of a New Insect, Naturforscher, Vol. XV II. p. 206, Halle, 1782; a species of can cer. 29. A Picture of England for 1780, continued to 1783, 8vo, 1784. German, 8vo. Dessau, 1784, giving some amusing particulars of many of the prin cipal public characters at the time of the American war, but frequently satirical, and sometimes unjust. 30. Essays on Moral and Physical Geography, 3 vols. Svo. Leipsic, 1781, 1783; continued by his son-in law, Matthias Sprengel. 31. Collection of Me moirs relating to Domestic Economy and Technology, Svo. Halle, 1784. 32. On the Albatross, Mem. Say. etr. Vol. X. p. 563 ; the Dioniedea. 33. History of Discoveries and Voyages in the North, 8vo. Frank fort on the Oder, 1784, English, London, 1786, Fr. Paris, 1788; containing a most extensive and ela borate collection of relations of all the attempts that bad been made to explore the Arctic regions. 34. Project for abolishing Mendicity, especially at Halle, Svo. Halle, 1786. 35. Enchiridion Historice Natu. rail inserviens, 8vo. Halle, 1788; an extremely use ful collection of definitions of the terms employed in the description of birds, fishes, insects, and plants, after the manner of the Philosophia Botanica of Linne ; it is dedicated to his son George, by whose infantine curiosity he was first impelled to the study of natural history ; and it was chiefly arranged dur ing the leisure hours of his voyage round the world. 36. A Memoir on the Badjar Cit. Mem. Acad. Berl. 1788, 1789, p. 90: the Manis pentadactylus. 37. Magazine of Modern Voyages and Travels, translat ed from various languages, with remarks, 16 vols. 8vo.'Halle, 1790, 1798. 38. An edition of Bergius uber die Leckereyen, a work on diet, with notes by Forster, Kurt, and Sprengel, 2 vols. 8vo. Halle, 1792. 39. A Letter to Schreber on the Persea, Magazinfur die Botanik, Vol. V. p. 234. 40. Onoma. tologia nova systematis oryclognosice vocabulis Latinis expressa, folio, Hal. 1795, 1 page. 41. Observations and Truths united to Probabilities, or Materials for a new Essay on the Theory of the Earth, 8vo. Leip zig, 1798: one of the last of our author's publica which is considered as a good elementary work on geology.
(Sprengel's Memoir, Eyries in Biographic Univer :elle, Vol. XV. 8vo. Paris, 1816. Aikin's General Biography, Vol. IV. 4to. London, 1803. Chalmers's Biographical Dictionary, Vol. XIII. 8vo. London, 1814.) N. A.