Peter Mark Roget ( ; 18 January 1779 – 12 September 1869) was a British
physician
A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...
,
natural theologian,
lexicographer and founding secretary of
The Portico Library. He is best known for publishing, in 1852, the ''
Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases'', a classified collection of related words. He also read a paper to 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 ...
about a peculiar
optical illusion in 1824, which is often regarded as the origin of the
persistence of vision theory that was later commonly used to explain apparent motion in film and animation.
Early life
Peter Mark Roget was born in
Broad Street,
Soho
Soho is an area of the City of Westminster, part of the West End of London. Originally a fashionable district for the aristocracy, it has been one of the main entertainment districts in the capital since the 19th century.
The area was deve ...
, London, the son of Jean (John) Roget (1751–1783), a
Geneva
Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaking part of Switzerland. Situa ...
n cleric, and his wife, Catherine Romilly, sister of
Samuel Romilly
Sir Samuel Romilly (1 March 1757 – 2 November 1818), was a British lawyer, politician and legal reformer. From a background in the commercial world, he became well-connected, and rose to public office and a prominent position in Parliament. ...
.
After his father's death the family moved to Edinburgh in 1783 and he shortly began to study medicine at the
University of Edinburgh
The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 1 ...
, graduating in 1798.
Samuel Romilly, who had supported his education, also introduced Roget into
Whig social circles.
Roget then attended lectures at London medical schools.
Living in
Clifton, Bristol
Clifton is both a suburb of Bristol, England, and the name of one of the city's thirty-five council wards. The Clifton ward also includes the areas of Cliftonwood and Hotwells. The eastern part of the suburb lies within the ward of Clifton D ...
, from 1798 to 1799, he knew
Thomas Beddoes and
Humphry Davy
Sir Humphry Davy, 1st Baronet, (17 December 177829 May 1829) was a British chemist and inventor who invented the Davy lamp and a very early form of arc lamp. He is also remembered for isolating, by using electricity, several elements for ...
and frequented the
Pneumatic Institute.
Not making a quick start to a medical career, in 1802 Roget took a position as a tutor to the sons of
John Leigh Philips, with whom he began a
Grand Tour
The Grand Tour was the principally 17th- to early 19th-century custom of a traditional trip through Europe, with Italy as a key destination, undertaken by upper-class young European men of sufficient means and rank (typically accompanied by a tut ...
during the
Peace of Amiens
The Treaty of Amiens (french: la paix d'Amiens, ) temporarily ended hostilities between France and the United Kingdom at the end of the War of the Second Coalition. It marked the end of the French Revolutionary Wars; after a short peace it s ...
, travelling with a friend, Lovell Edgeworth, son of
Richard Lovell Edgeworth. When the Peace abruptly ended he was detained as a prisoner in Geneva. He was able to bring his pupils back to England in late 1803 but Edgeworth was held in captivity until
Napoleon
Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader wh ...
fell on 6 April 1814.
Medical career
With the help of Samuel Romilly Roget became a private physician to
William Petty, 1st Marquess of Lansdowne, who died in 1805. He then succeeded
Thomas Percival at
Manchester Infirmary and began to lecture on
physiology
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 chemic ...
. He moved to London in 1808 and in 1809 became a licentiate of the
Royal College of Physicians. After an extended period of dispensary work and lecturing, in particular, at the
Russell Institution
The Russell Institution (fuller titles: Russell Institution for the Promotion of Literary and Scientific Knowledge, and the Russell Literary and Scientific Institution) was an organisation devoted to scientific, literary and musical education, base ...
and
Royal Institution
The Royal Institution of Great Britain (often the Royal Institution, Ri or RI) is an organisation for scientific education and research, based in the City of Westminster. It was founded in 1799 by the leading British scientists of the age, inc ...
, he was taken onto the staff of the
Queen Charlotte Hospital in 1817.
He also lectured at the
London Institution and the
Windmill Street School.
Politician, abolitionist and legal reformer
Sir Samuel Romilly committed suicide by cutting his throat, dying in Roget's presence, in 1818. Roget had been called by the family following the death of Lady Romilly.
In 1823 Roget and
Peter Mere Latham
Peter Mere Latham (1789–1875) was an English physician and "a great medical educator".
Life
The son of John Latham (1761–1843), he was born on 1 July 1789 in London. Described as "a very delicate child", he attended Sandbach School where he ...
were brought in to investigate disease at
Millbank Penitentiary.
In 1828 Roget, with
William Thomas Brande
William Thomas Brande FRS FRSE (11 January 178811 February 1866) was an English chemist.
Biography
Brande was born in Arlington Street, London, England, the youngest son of six children to Augustus Everard Brande an apothecary, originally fr ...
and
Thomas Telford
Thomas Telford FRS, FRSE, (9 August 1757 – 2 September 1834) was a Scottish civil engineer. After establishing himself as an engineer of road and canal projects in Shropshire, he designed numerous infrastructure projects in his native Scot ...
, submitted a report on London's water supply. In 1834 he became the first Fullerian Professor of Physiology at the
Royal Institution
The Royal Institution of Great Britain (often the Royal Institution, Ri or RI) is an organisation for scientific education and research, based in the City of Westminster. It was founded in 1799 by the leading British scientists of the age, inc ...
. One of those who helped found 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 degr ...
in 1837, he was an examiner in physiology there. He gave up medical practice in 1840.
Later life
In later life Roget became deaf and was cared for by his daughter, Kate.
He died while on holiday in
West Malvern,
Worcestershire, aged 90, and is buried there in the churchyard of St James' Church. There is a memorial to him at his local parish church of
St Mary on Paddington Green Church.
Thesaurus
Roget retired from professional life in 1840, and by 1846 was working on the book that perpetuates his memory today.
It has been claimed that Roget struggled with depression for most of his life, and that the thesaurus arose partly from an effort to battle it. A biographer stated that his obsession with list-making as a coping mechanism was well established by the time Roget was eight years old. In 1805, he began to maintain a notebook
classification scheme for words, organized by meaning.
During this period he also moved to Manchester, where he became the first secretary of the
Portico Library.
The catalogue of words was first printed in 1852, titled ''Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases Classified and Arranged so as to Facilitate the Expression of Ideas and Assist in Literary Composition''. During Roget's lifetime, the work had twenty-eight printings. After his death, it was revised and expanded by his son, John Lewis Roget (1828–1908), and later by John's son, the engineer Samuel Romilly Roget (1875–1953).
Roget's private library was put up for auction in 1870 at
Sotheby's
Sotheby's () is a British-founded American multinational corporation with headquarters in New York City. It is one of the world's largest brokers of fine and decorative art, jewellery, and collectibles. It has 80 locations in 40 countries, an ...
and its catalogue has been analyzed.
Other interests
Roget was elected a
Fellow of the Royal Society
Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural knowledge, including mathemati ...
in 1815, in recognition of a paper on a
slide rule with a
loglog scale. He was a secretary of the Society from 1827 to 1848.
On 9 December 1824, Roget presented a paper on a peculiar optical illusion to the ''
Philosophical Transactions'', which was published in 1825, as ''Explanation of an optical deception in the appearance of the spokes of a wheel when seen through vertical apertures.'' The paper was noted by Michael Faraday and by Joseph Plateau, who both mentioned it in their articles that presented new illusions with apparent motion. It has often been heralded as the basis for the
persistence of vision theory, which has for a long time been falsely regarded as the principle causing the perception of motion in animation and film.
In 1834, Roget claimed to have invented "the Phantasmascope or
Phenakisticope" in the spring of 1831, a few years before Plateau introduced that first stroboscopic animation device.
One of the promoters of the
Medical and Chirurgical Society of London
The Medical and Chirurgical Society of London was a learned society of physicians and surgeons which was founded in 1805 by 26 personalities in these fields who had left the Medical Society of London (founded 1773) because of disagreement with the ...
, which later became the
Royal Society of Medicine
The Royal Society of Medicine (RSM) is a medical society in the United Kingdom, headquartered in London.
History
The Society was established in 1805 as Medical and Chirurgical Society of London, meeting in two rooms in barristers’ chambers ...
, Roget was also a founder of the
Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge
The Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge (SDUK) was founded in London in 1826, mainly at the instigation of Whig MP Henry Brougham, with the object of publishing information to people who were unable to obtain formal teaching or who pr ...
, writing a series of popular manuals for it.
He wrote numerous papers on physiology and health, among them the fifth ''
Bridgewater Treatise'', ''Animal and Vegetable Physiology considered with reference to Natural Theology'' (1834), and articles for the ''
Encyclopædia Britannica
The (Latin for "British Encyclopædia") is a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It is published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.; the company has existed since the 18th century, although it has changed ownership various t ...
''. He was hostile to
phrenology
Phrenology () is a pseudoscience which involves the measurement of bumps on the skull to predict mental traits.Wihe, J. V. (2002). "Science and Pseudoscience: A Primer in Critical Thinking." In ''Encyclopedia of Pseudoscience'', pp. 195–203. C ...
, writing against it in a ''Britannica'' supplement in 1818, and devoting a two-volume work to it (1838).
A chess player, in an article in the ''
London and Edinburgh Philosophical Magazine'' Roget solved the general open
knight's tour problem. He composed chess problems, and designed an inexpensive pocket chessboard.
Selected publications
*
*
*
In literature
Canadian writer
Keath Fraser published a story, ''Roget's Thesaurus'', in 1982, which is narrated in Roget's voice. He has Roget speak on his wife's death, from cancer.
Roget also appears in
Shelagh Stephenson's ''
An Experiment with an Air Pump'', set in 1799, as the only historical character. The play is set in the fictional household of Joseph Fenwick, and Roget is one of Fenwick's assistants.
A picture-book biography of Roget entitled ''The Right Word: Roget and His Thesaurus'' was published by Eerdmans Books in 2014. It was named a
Caldecott Honor book for excellence in illustration and won the
Sibert Medal
The Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Medal established by the Association for Library Service to Children
The Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) is a division of the American Library Association, and it is the world's largest ...
for excellence in children's nonfiction.
Family
In 1824 Roget married Mary Taylor (1795–1833), daughter of Jonathan Hobson. They had a son, John Lewis (1828–1908), and a daughter, Kate.
References
Further reading
*
*
*Emblen, D.L. (1969). “The Library of Peter Mark Roget.” ''
The Book Collector
''The Book Collector'' is a London based journal that deals with all aspects of the book.
It is published quarterly and exists in both paper and digital form. It prints independent opinions on subjects ranging from typography to national heritage ...
'' 18 no 4 (winter): 449–469.
*
*
External links
*
*
*
Roget's spiral a
YouTube
{{DEFAULTSORT:Roget, Peter
1779 births
1869 deaths
Alumni of the University of Edinburgh
People with mental disorders
British people of Swiss descent
Burials in Worcestershire
English lexicographers
19th-century English medical doctors
Fellows of the Geological Society of London
Fellows of the Royal Society
Presidents of the Smeatonian Society of Civil Engineers
Fullerian Professors of Physiology
People associated with Malvern, Worcestershire
Academics of the University of Manchester
People from Soho
Authors of the Bridgewater Treatises
Committee members of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge