Sir Michael Foster (8 March 1836 – 29 January 1907) was an English

physiologist Physiology (; ) is the scientific study of functions and mechanisms in a living system. As a sub-discipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ systems, individual organs, cells, and biomolecules carry out the chemical a ...

. He was instrumental in organizing the

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

Biological School and acted as Secretary of the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

Biography

Foster was born in

Huntingdon Huntingdon is a market town in the Huntingdonshire district in Cambridgeshire, England. The town was given its town charter by King John in 1205. It was the county town of the historic county of Huntingdonshire. Oliver Cromwell was born there ...

Huntingdonshire Huntingdonshire (; abbreviated Hunts) is a non-metropolitan district of Cambridgeshire and a historic county of England. The district council is based in Huntingdon. Other towns include St Ives, Godmanchester, St Neots and Ramsey. The popul ...

, in March 1836, the son of Michael Foster, FRCS. He was educated at Huntingdon Grammar school and

University College School ("Slowly but surely") , established = , closed = , type = Public schoolIndependent day school , religion = , president = , head_label = Headmaster , head = Mark Beard , r_head_label = , r_hea ...

, London. After graduating in medicine in 1859, he began to practise in his native town, but in 1867 he returned to London as teacher of practical physiology at

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

, where two years afterwards he became professor. In 1870 he was appointed by

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by Henry VIII, King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge ...

, to its praelectorship in physiology, and thirteen years later he became the first occupant of the newly created chair of physiology in the university, holding it till 1903. One of his most famous students at Cambridge was

Charles Scott Sherrington Sir Charles Scott Sherrington (27 November 1857 – 4 March 1952) was an eminent English neurophysiologist. His experimental research established many aspects of contemporary neuroscience, including the concept of the spinal reflex as a system ...

who went on to win the

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfr ...

in 1932. He married first, in 1864, Georgina Edmonds, daughter of Cyrus Read Edmonds. Following her death in 1869, he married secondly, in 1872, Margaret Rust, daughter of George Rust, JP, of Huntingdon. He lived at Nine Wells House,

Great Shelford Great Shelford is a village located approximately to the south of Cambridge, in the county of Cambridgeshire, in eastern England. In 1850 Great Shelford parish contained bisected by the river Cam. The population in 1841 was 803 people. By 2001 ...

in the

Gog Magog Hills The Gog Magog Hills are a range of low chalk hills, extending for several miles to the southeast of Cambridge in England. The highest points are situated either side of the A1307 Babraham Road, and are marked on Ordnance Survey 1:25000 maps as ...

opposite his friend and fellow physiologist W H Gaskell.

Career

He excelled as a teacher and administrator, and had a very large share in the organization and development of the Cambridge biological school. From 1881 to 1903 he was one of the secretaries of the

, and in that capacity exercised a wide influence on the study of biology in Britain. In the

1899 Birthday Honours The Queen's Birthday Honours 1899 were announced on 3 June 1899 in celebration of the birthday of Queen Victoria. The list included appointments to various orders and honours of the United Kingdom and British India. The list was published in '' ...

, he was created a Knight Commander of the

Order of the Bath The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I of Great Britain, George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate medieval ceremony for appointing a knight, which involved Bathing#Medieval ...

(KCB), and served as president of the

British Association The British Science Association (BSA) is a charity and learned society founded in 1831 to aid in the promotion and development of science. Until 2009 it was known as the British Association for the Advancement of Science (BA). The current Chie ...

at its meeting at Dover in September 1899. Foster was elected to represent the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...

in parliament in a

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election (Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to f ...

in February 1900, and returned unopposed in the 1900 general election held later the same year. He stood for the

Liberal Unionist Party The Liberal Unionist Party was a British political party that was formed in 1886 by a faction that broke away from the Liberal Party. Led by Lord Hartington (later the Duke of Devonshire) and Joseph Chamberlain, the party established a political ...

, and though returned as a Unionist, his political action was not to be dictated by party considerations, and he gravitated towards

Liberalism Liberalism is a political and moral philosophy based on the rights of the individual, liberty, consent of the governed, political equality and equality before the law."political rationalism, hostility to autocracy, cultural distaste for c ...

. He played no prominent part in parliament and indicated a desire to resign in 1902, but stayed on until the next election of 1906, where he stood for re-election but was defeated. He was joint editor with E. Ray Lankester of ''The Scientific Memoirs of Thomas Henry Huxley''. His chief writings were a ''Textbook of Physiology'' (1876), which became a standard work, and ''Lectures on the History of Physiology during the 16th, 17th and 18th Centuries'' (1901), which consisted of lectures delivered at the

Cooper Medical College Stanford University School of Medicine is the medical school of Stanford University and is located in Stanford, California. It traces its roots to the Medical Department of the University of the Pacific, founded in San Francisco in 1858. This ...

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

, in 1900. He was elected as a member to the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

in 1902. He died suddenly in London in 1907.

Irises

Foster was also the binomial author of many iris species. One of many irises he introduced includes '' Iris lineata'' Foster ''ex''

Regel Eduard August von Regel (sometimes Edward von Regel or Edward de Regel or Édouard von Regel), Russian: Эдуард Август Фон Регель; (born 13 August 1815 in Gotha; died 15 April 1892 in St. Petersburg) was a German horticultural ...

''Iris lineata'' was originally described and published in ''Gartenflora'' XXXXVI. (1887) 201, t. 1244. (or A.Regel), which was originally described and published in ''Gartenflora'' (1887), and later cited in ''

Curtis's Botanical Magazine ''The Botanical Magazine; or Flower-Garden Displayed'', is an illustrated publication which began in 1787. The longest running botanical magazine, it is widely referred to by the subsequent name ''Curtis's Botanical Magazine''. Each of the issue ...

'' (1888). The species ''

Iris fosteriana ''Iris fosteriana'' is a species in the genus ''Iris'', subgenus '' Scorpiris''. It was named after Michael Foster (a known British Iris expert) by Dr Aitchison, and found in Pendjeh, Turkmenistan. First described in transactions of the Li ...

'' was named after Foster by Aitchison, in 1881. The British Iris Society recognised his significant contributions with the introduction of the Foster Memorial Plaque in 1926. This is a medal made of sterling silver, hallmarked by Toye & Co., London, one side cast in

bas relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term ''relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that the ...

with an oval portrait of Foster, within a bed of irises, a banner above inscribed 'In Memory Sir Michael Foster 1836-1907'. The other side named the award winner. Early awardees included, in 1927

George Yeld George Yeld (1845–1938) was a schoolmaster, climber, explorer and hybridiser of Daylily, daylilies and Iris (plant), irises. He was a member of the Alpine Club and editor of the ''Alpine Journal''. Much of his climbing and exploration was condu ...

VMH The Victoria Medal of Honour (VMH) is awarded to British horticulturists resident in the United Kingdom whom the Royal Horticultural Society Council considers deserving of special honour by the Society. The award was established in 1897 "in per ...

, American

John Wister John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second E ...

and Frenchman Seraphin Mottet. In 1936 it was given to painter

William Caparne William Caparne (1855–1940), born William John Caparn, was a British horticulturist and a painter of floral and other subjects. He created the first hybrids in the intermediate bearded iris group, and is thought to have created more than 10 ...

. This award has continued into the twenty-first century.

References

Bibliography

* * ;Attribution *

External links

Biography and bibliography
in the

Virtual Laboratory The online project Virtual Laboratory. Essays and Resources on the Experimentalization of Life, 1830-1930, located at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, is dedicated to research in the history of the experimentalization of life. Th ...

of the

Max Planck Institute for the History of Science The Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (German: Max-Planck-Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte) is a scientific research institute founded in March 1994. It is dedicated to addressing fundamental questions of the history of knowledg ...

* *
Obituary
in The Journal of Physiology
Photograph of Sir Michael's residence, Nine Wells House

. This house used to have an extensive iris garden planted by Sir Michael, but the iris garden was lost during WW II.
Sir Michael Foster
works @Google Books * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Foster, Michael 1836 births 1907 deaths People from Huntingdon People educated at University College School Academics of University College London Alumni of the University of London English agnostics English physiologists Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge Fellows of the Royal Society Fullerian Professors of Physiology Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for London University UK MPs 1895–1900 UK MPs 1900–1906 Presidents of the British Science Association Liberal Unionist Party MPs for English constituencies Liberal Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Victoria Medal of Honour (Horticulture) recipients People from Great Shelford The Journal of Physiology editors Professors of Physiology (Cambridge)