SIR MICHAEL FOSTER 873 



SIR MICHAEL FOSTER (1836-1907) 



Foreign Honorary Member in Class II, Section 3, 1896. 



Sir Michael Foster was born at Huntingdon, England, March 8, 

 1836. In school he distinguished himself in classics, and in 1854 took 

 his B. A. degree at London University on the Arts side. His bent was 

 toward the classics, but being a Non-conformist he was debarred 

 from the fellowships at Cambridge that he might otherwise have 

 taken. Instead he followed his father's footsteps and studied medi- 

 cine at University College, London, where he took the M. D. degree 

 in 1859. 



After a year of study in Paris he was sent away for liis health, being 

 threatened with pulmonary disease. This danger obliged him through- 

 out his life to spend much time out of doors. 



In 1861 he began the practice of medicine with his father. This he 

 continued for six years. Then he accepted an invitation from his 

 former teacher, Sharpey, to give a course of practical physiology at 

 University College, thus beginning his career as a scientist and aban- 

 doning the practice of medicine. 



At this stage in his career Foster was much influenced by Huxley 

 whom he succeeded as Fullerian Professor of Physiology at the Royal 

 Institution in 1869. And when in the next year Huxley commenced 

 his course of elementary biology at South Kensington, Foster among 

 others assisted him. 



It was largely through his connection with Huxley that Foster 

 became identified with the great change which occurred in the science 

 of physiology during his life; a change in which he was perhaps the 

 most active leader. Hitherto physiology had in general been treated 

 descriptively as a mere adjunct of human anatomy; the statements 

 were largely based on familiar observations and on inferences drawn 

 from the study of structure. The great advances which have marked 

 the new era have come through the introduction of the experimental 

 method. 



Perhaps the most important event in this movement was the estab- 

 lishment in 1870 by Trinity College in the University of Cambridge 

 of separate teaching in physiology. Huxley was consulted by the 

 originators of the project, and at once recommertded Foster for this 

 work. He was made Trinity Praelector of Physiology, working in 

 the University, but having no oflScial connection with it. He was 



