See the biographies by J.A. Wyeth (1899) and J.H. Mathes (1902).
FORSKÅL, PETER (1736-1763), Swedish traveller and naturalist, was born in Kalmar in 1736. He studied at Göttingen, where he published a dissertation entitled Dubia de principiis philosophiae recentioris (1756). Thence he returned to his native country, which, however, he had to leave after the publication of a pamphlet entitled Pensées sur la liberté civile (1759). By Linnaeus he was recommended to Frederick V. of Denmark, who appointed him to accompany Carsten Niebuhr in an expedition to Arabia and Egypt in 1761. He died of the plague at Jerim in Arabia on the 11th of July 1763.
His friend and companion, Niebuhr, was entrusted with the care of editing his MSS., and published in 1775 Descriptiones animalium, avium, amphibiorum, piscium, insectorum, vermium, quae in itin. Orient. observavit Petrus Forskål. In the same year appeared also his account of the plants of Arabia Felix and of lower Egypt, under the title of Flora Aegyptiaco-Arabica.
FORSSELL, HANS LUDVIG (1843-1901), Swedish historian and political writer, the son of Adolf Forssell, a distinguished mathematician, was born at Gefle, where his father was professor, on 14th January 1843. At the age of sixteen he became a student in Upsala University, where he distinguished himself, and where, in 1866, having taken the degree of doctor, he was appointed reader in history. At the age of thirty, however, Forssell, who had already shown remarkable business capacity, was called to Stockholm, where he filled one important post after another in the Swedish civil service. In 1875 he was appointed head of the treasury, and in 1880 was transferred to the department of inland revenue, of which he continued to be president until the time of his death. In addition to the responsibilities which these offices devolved upon him, Forssell was constantly called to serve on royal commissions, and his political influence was immense. In spite of all these public duties, which he carried through with the utmost diligence, Forssell also found leisure for an abundant literary activity. Of his historical writings the most important were: The Administrative and Economical History of Sweden after Gustavus I. (1869-1875) and Sweden in 1571 (1872). He was also for several years, in company with the poet Wirsén, editor of the Swedish Literary Review. He published two volumes of Studies and Criticisms (1875, 1888). In the year 1881, at the death of the historian Anders Fryxell, Forssell was elected to the vacant seat on the Swedish Academy. The energy of Forssell was so great, and he understood so little the economy of strength, that he unquestionably overtaxed his vital force. His death, however, which occurred with great suddenness on the 2nd of August 1901 while he was staying at San Bernardino in Switzerland, was wholly unexpected. There was little of the typical Swedish urbanity in Forssell’s exterior manner, which was somewhat dry and abrupt. Like many able men who have from early life administered responsible public posts, there appeared a certain want of sympathy in his demands upon others. His views were distinct, and held with great firmness; for example, he was a free-trader, and his consistent opposition to what he called “the new system” had a considerable effect on Swedish policy. He was not exactly an attractive man, but he was a capable, upright and efficient public servant. In 1867 he married Miss Zulamith Eneroth, a daughter of the well-known pomologist of Upsala; she survived him, with two sons and two daughters.
(E. G.)
FORST (originally Forsta or Forste), a town of Germany, in the Prussian province of Brandenburg, on the Neisse, 44 m. S.E. of Frankfort-on-Oder. Pop. (1905) 33,757. It has two Evangelical, a Roman Catholic and an Old Lutheran church; there are two schools and two hospitals in the town. The chief industry of Forst is the manufacture of cloth, but spinning, dyeing and the making of artificial flowers are also carried on. Founded in the 13th century, Forst passed in 1667 to the duke of Saxe-Merseburg, becoming part of electoral Saxony in 1740. It was ceded to Prussia in 1815.