Joseph Townsend

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Joseph Townsend

Joseph Townsend (born April 4, 1739 in London , † November 9, 1816 ) was a British geologist, doctor and priest of the Church of England .

Life

Townsend studied at Clare College in Cambridge and Edinburgh and in 1769 became the house chaplain of the Duke of Atoll, with whom he undertook a long journey through Western Europe. He later wrote, among other things, works on geology, medical treatises and an area of ​​Spain. 1786 his work appeared A Dissertation on the Poor Laws by a Well-Wisher to Mankind (dt .: "On the Poor Laws - polemic a philanthropist"), in which he criticize the Elizabethan poor laws practiced. In this book he criticizes the fact that the right of the poor to assistance hampers the development of the markets and, as a result, poverty and impoverishment would continue to increase. He claims that hunger can only stimulate the poor to work, which is made impossible by the right to help. Townsend anticipated a central idea from Thomas Robert Malthus ' An Essay on the Principle of Population with his pessimistic vision of overpopulation due to state welfare .

Fonts

  • A dissertation on the poor laws. By a well-wisher to mankind (1786), University of California Press, Berkeley 1971
    • (German edition :) About the Poor Laws - pamphlet from a philanthropist. Edited and with an afterword by Philipp Lepenies. Suhrkamp, ​​Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-518-29582-3 .
  • A journey through Spain in the years 1786 and 1787; with particular attention to the agriculture, manufactures, commerce, population, taxes, and revenue of that country; and remarks in passing through a part of France . C. Dilly, London 1792 Volume I (digitized version) Volume II [1] Volume III [2]
  • A guide to health: being cautions and directions in the treatment of diseases, designed chiefly for the use of students . London 1795 (digitized) , Volume II (1796) (digitized)
    • Christian Friedrich Michaelis (translator). Joseph Townsend's instruction for aspiring doctors to a reasonable medical practice based on Cullen's nosology. Friedrich Gotthelf Baumgärtner, Leipzig Part I (1796) (digitized)

literature

  • AD Morris: The Reverend Joseph Townsend MA MGS (1739-1816) physician and geologist - 'Colossus of Roads'. In: Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine. Volume 62, Number 5, May 1969, pp. 471-477, PMID 4890357 , PMC 1811030 (free full text).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Joseph Townsend, On the Poor Laws (Berlin: Suhrkamp, ​​2011), p. 9
  2. ^ Joseph Townsend, On the Poor Laws (Berlin: Suhrkamp, ​​2011), p. 22
  3. ↑ Phillip Lepenies: Of goats and dogs . In: Joseph Townsend, On the Poor Laws (Berlin: Suhrkamp, ​​2011), p. 104
personal data
SURNAME Townsend, Joseph
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British geologist, doctor and priest
DATE OF BIRTH April 4, 1739
PLACE OF BIRTH London
DATE OF DEATH November 9, 1816