Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 2.djvu/66

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Foster
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Foulkes

the evidence for and against the current theories being dispassionately weighed. Its attractive style and its occasional passages of vivid literary merit placed it, amongst text-books, in a class by itself. Both at home and abroad it had an immediate success. Six editions were published and part of a seventh; the third edition was perhaps the best, since in the later remodelling it lost something of its original unity of purpose. He wrote also a 'Science Primer of Physiology' (1890), a life of Claude Bernard (1899), 'A History of Physiology during the Sixteenth, Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries' (1901), and 'Simple Lessons in Health for the Use of the Young' (1906). He was also joint-editor of the collected edition of Huxley's 'Scientific Memoirs' (1898-1902). Foster in 1878 founded the 'Journal of Physiology,' the first journal in the English language devoted solely to the subject, and remained its sole editor until 1894. Its pages were confined to accounts of original investigation, though for some years an appendix was issued giving a list of books and papers of physiological interest published elsewhere. In its early years most of the rising school of American physiologists used it as a means of publication.

Foster had great powers of organisation. It was chiefly through him that the Physiological Society was founded in 1875, and the International Congress of Physiologists established in 1889. During his long tenure of the office of secretary of the Royal Society he seized every opportunity of forwarding the cause of science, and took a prominent part in most of the plans for combined scientific action. He strengthened the connection between the Royal Society and the government, and the most varied forms of scientific expeditions and explorations found in him a strong supporter. His influence was perhaps more especially felt in the establishment of the International Association of Academies, and in the arrangements leading up to the publication of the 'International Catalogue of Scientific Papers.' He was a member of the committee appointed by the colonial office to advise as to the best means of combating disease; he served on the royal commissions on vaccination, disposal of sewage, and tuberculosis, and on the commission appointed to consider the reorganisation of the University of London.

Portraits of him were painted by Herkomer and by the Hon. John Collier; the former is in the possession of Trinity College, Cambridge; the latter belongs to his son, but a replica of the head and shoulders is in the possession of the Royal Society.

[Year Book of Roy. See. 1906, p. 13 (gives list of honours); Brit. Med. Journ. 9 Feb. 1907; Journ. of Physiol. xxxv. 233, March 1907; Rendiconti d. R. Accad. d. Lincei (Roma), xvi. Ap. 1907; Cambridge Rev. 30 May 1907; Proc. Linn. Soc. 1907, p. 42; Proc. Roy. Soc. B. lxxx. p. lxxi, 1908; Colorado Med. Journ. Oct. 1900; The Garden, 15 Nov. 1890, 18 Feb. 1893; Gardeners' Chron. 1883; Garden Life, 9 Feb. 1907.]


FOULKES, ISAAC (1836–1904), Welsh author and editor, born in 1836 at the farm of Cwrt, Llanfwrog, Denbighshire, was son of Peter Foulkes by his wife Frances. At the age of fifteen he was apprenticed to Isaac Clarke, printer, Ruthin; in 1857 he entered the office of the 'Amserau' newspaper in Liverpool, and soon afterwards set up a printing business of his own in that city, which he conducted until his death. He issued in 1877–88 'Cyfres y Ceinion' (The Gem Series), a series of cheap reprints of Welsh classics which gave notable stimulus to the Welsh literary revival at the end of the nineteenth century. In May 1890 he began to issue the 'Cymro' (Welshman), a weekly Welsh newspaper intended primarily for Liverpool Welshmen, but soon read widely in Wales as well; Foulkes was both editor and publisher, and made the journal a literary medium of high value. He died at Rhewl, near Ruthin, on 2 Nov. 1904, and was buried in Llanbedr churchyard. He married (1) Hannah Foulkes, by whom he had two sons and three daughters; and (2) Sinah Owen.

Foulkes, who was known in bardic circles as 'Llyfrbryf' (Bookworm), was a keen student of Welsh literature, and as author, critic, editor and publisher, devoted to this cause literary judgment and unflagging energy. He wrote: 1. 'Cymru Fu' (a volume of folklore), pt. i. Llanidloes, 1862; pts. ii. and iii. Liverpool, 1863-4; 2nd edit. Wrexham, 1872. 2. 'Rheinallt ap Gruffydd' (a novel), Liverpool, 1874. 3. A memoir of the poet Ceiriog, Liverpool, 1887; 2nd edit. 1902; 3rd edit. 1911. 4. A memoir of the novelist, Daniel Owen, Liverpool, 1903. Among other works which he both edited and published are 'Enwogion Cymru,' a biographical dictionary of eminent Welshmen (Liverpool, 1870); the 'Mabinogion,' with a translation into modern Welsh (1880);