T. Forster | |
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![]() Etching of Thomas Forster with his dog Shargs | |
Born | Thomas Ignatius Maria Forster 9 November 1789 Walthamstow, London, England |
Died | 2 February 1860 70) Brussels, Belgium | (aged
Alma mater | Corpus Christi College, Cambridge |
Occupation(s) | Astronomer, physician, naturalist, philosopher |
Spouse | Julia Beaufoy (m. 1817) |
Children | 1 |
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Relatives |
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Thomas Ignatius Maria Forster FRAS FLS (9 November 1789 – 2 February 1860) was an English astronomer, physician, naturalist and philosopher. An early animal rights activist, he promoted vegetarianism and founded the Animals' Friend Society with Lewis Gompertz. He published pamphlets on a wide variety of subjects, including morality, Pythagorean philosophy, bird migration, Sati, and "phrenology", a term that he coined in 1815.
Forster was born in London, on 9 November 1789, the eldest son of Thomas Furly Forster of Walthamstow, who was a botanist, and follower of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. [1] He did not have the conventional classical literary education, but learned some science from his uncle Benjamin Meggot Forster. [2] The Great Comet of 1811 aroused his interest in astronomy, a science which he continued to pursue, and eight years later, on 3 July 1819, he himself discovered a new comet. He declined a fellowship to the Royal Society in 1816 as he disliked some of the rules. He matriculated at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, in order to study law, but soon abandoned it to study medicine, taking his degree in 1819. [3] Two years before, he had married Julia, daughter of Colonel Mark Beaufoy, and taken up residence at Spa Lodge, Tunbridge Wells. After the birth of his only daughter he moved to Hartwell in Sussex, and then spent three years abroad. During the 1820s, he converted to Roman Catholicism. [1] [4]
After his return to England he became a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and helped to found a meteorological society along with Sir Richard Phillips, which had only a brief existence. [1]
After his father's death in 1825, he took up his residence in Chelmsford in order to be near his daughter, then a pupil at Newhall Convent. Here he undertook a series of researches on the influence of atmospheric conditions on diseases, and particularly on cholera which also involved a balloon ascent in April 1831. In 1833 he again went abroad, where he spent most of his remaining years, settling finally in Bruges. He continued writing during the latter part of his life, including poetry. He also composed selections for the violin. He numbered among his friends authors and scholars of his time, such as Thomas Gray, Richard Porson, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Thomas Love Peacock, William Herschel, and William Whewell. [1] He became a vegetarian, following a Pythagorean diet, and along with Lewis Gompertz, founded the Animals' Friend Society in 1833. [5]
Forster lived in Bruges, Belgium, from 1842 until 1852. He then moved to Brussels, where he died on 2 February 1860. [1]
In 1805 Forster had compiled a "Journal of the Weather" and had published his Liber Rerum Naturalium. In 1806, inspired by Gall's works, he took up the study of phrenology. [1] Later he met Johann Spurzheim, and studied with him the anatomy and physiology of the brain. Forster accompanied Spurzheim to Edinburgh, where he communicated a paper on the comparative anatomy of the brain to the Wernerian Society. On his return to London he published a sketch of Gall and Spurzheim's system, which, like many of his writings, appeared in the Pamphleteer , together with an essay on the application of the organology of the brain to education. [2] He coined the term "Phrenology" in 1815. [6]
Forster was influenced by John Abernethy under whom he studied surgery. Abernethy believed in diet as being key to health. In 1813, Forster published his Physiological Reflections on the Destructive Operation of Spiritous and Fermented Liquors on the Animal System where he traced his vegetarianism to Italian renaissance writing, Pythagorean ideas on the transmigration of the soul, cruelty to animals, and Hindu practices. He also influenced Shelley's conversion to vegetarianism. [7]
Forster's observations and studies in Continental Europe led to the publication, in 1824, of his "Perennial Calendar". In 1830 he collected and published the letters of John Locke, Shaftesbury, and Algernon Sydney which he inherited from Benjamin Furly. [1]
Other publications included:
John Abernethy was an English surgeon. He is popularly remembered today for having given his name to the Abernethy biscuit, a coarse-meal baked good meant to aid digestion.
Phrenology or craniology is a pseudoscience that involves the measurement of bumps on the skull to predict mental traits. It is based on the concept that the brain is the organ of the mind, and that certain brain areas have localized, specific functions or modules. It was said that the brain was composed of different muscles, so those that were used more often were bigger, resulting in the different skull shapes. This provided reasoning for the common presence of bumps on the skull in different locations. The brain "muscles" not being used as frequently remained small and were therefore not present on the exterior of the skull. Although both of those ideas have a basis in reality, phrenology generalizes beyond empirical knowledge in a way that departs from science. The central phrenological notion that measuring the contour of the skull can predict personality traits is discredited by empirical research. Developed by German physician Franz Joseph Gall in 1796, the discipline was influential in the 19th century, especially from about 1810 until 1840. The principal British centre for phrenology was Edinburgh, where the Edinburgh Phrenological Society was established in 1820.
Marie Jean Pierre Flourens, father of Gustave Flourens, was a French physiologist, the founder of experimental brain science, and a pioneer in anesthesia.
Franz Josef Gall was a German neuroanatomist, physiologist, and pioneer in the study of the localization of mental functions in the brain.
The year 1810 in science and technology included many events, some of which are listed here.
Johann Gaspar Spurzheim was a German physician who became one of the chief proponents of phrenology, which was developed c. 1800 by Franz Joseph Gall (1758–1828).
George Combe was a Scottish lawyer and a spokesman of the phrenological movement for over 20 years. He founded the Edinburgh Phrenological Society in 1820 and wrote The Constitution of Man (1828). After marriage in 1833, Combe devoted his later years to promoting phrenology internationally.
Andrew Combe was a Scottish physician and phrenologist.
Richard Chenevix was an Irish chemist, mineralogist and playwright who also wrote on a range of other topics. He was known for his sharp cynicism and for engaging in combative criticism.
The Edinburgh Phrenological Society was founded in 1820 by George Combe, an Edinburgh lawyer, with his physician brother Andrew Combe. The Edinburgh Society was the first and foremost phrenology grouping in Great Britain; more than forty phrenological societies followed in other parts of the British Isles. The Society's influence was greatest over its first two decades and declined in the 1840s; the final meeting was recorded in 1870.
Lewis Gompertz was an English Jewish activist, philosopher, writer and inventor. He dedicated his life to promoting animal rights and welfare, and veganism.
Vegetarianism in the Romantic Era refers to the rise of vegetarianism associated with the Romanticism movement in Western Europe from the eighteenth to the nineteenth century. Many of the late Romantics argued in favor of a more natural diet which excluded animal flesh for a plethora of reasons including the state of human and animal health, religious beliefs, economy and class division, animal rights, literary influence, as well as from new ideas about anthropology, consumerism, and evolution. The modern vegetarian and vegan movements borrow some of the same principles from the late Romantics to promote the adoption of diets free from animal products.
Thomas Furly Forster was an English botanist.
Benjamin Forster was an English antiquary and clergyman.
A Vindication of Natural Diet is an 1813 book by Percy Bysshe Shelley on vegetarianism and animal rights. It was first written as part of the notes to Queen Mab, which was privately printed in 1813. Later in the same year the essay was separately published as a pamphlet.
The Boston Phrenological Society was formed in 1832 upon the death of a prominent continental phrenologist, Johann Gaspar Spurzheim. Spurzheim was an anatomist and a former pupil of Franz Josef Gall. Spurzheim's brief tour and death popularized phrenology in the United States outside of its controversial place in medical lecture halls, and into the sphere of social reformers and ministers. The Society's formation launched the phrenology movement in the United States. The Boston Phrenological Society was founded by phrenology adherent Nahum Capen on the day of Spurzheim's funeral, November 17, 1832.
The Zoist: A Journal of Cerebral Physiology & Mesmerism, and Their Applications to Human Welfare was a British journal, devoted to the promotion of the theories and practices of the pseudoscientific concepts of mesmerism and phrenology, and the enterprise of "connecting and harmonizing practical science with little understood laws governing the mental structure of man". The name derived from the Greek word Zoe (ζωή) meaning "life". The Zoist was published quarterly, without a break, for fifteen years: from March 1843 until January 1856.
Dr John Gordon FRSE FRCSE was a short-lived but influential Scottish anatomist. In 1806 he served as president of the Royal Medical Society. In 1815 he caused an international stir by debunking the new science of phrenology and publicly criticising its principal European exponents, Johann Spurzheim and Franz Joseph Gall.
Figs or Pigs? is an 1896 manual on vegetarianism and fruitarianism compiled by James Madison Allen, which contains observations from the author, as well as numerous quotations from eminent authors and authorities.
Shelley's Vegetarianism is a 1891 pamphlet on the vegetarianism of Percy Bysshe Shelley by William Axon, published by the Vegetarian Society. It is a printing of a lecture delivered by Axon before the Shelley Society, at University College in 1890.