Ainsworth

Ainsworth, WILLIAM FRANCIS, an English physician, geologist, and traveller, was born at Exeter in 1807. He studied medicine at Edinburgh, and, after receiving (1827) his medical diploma, he travelled in France, and prosecuted geological investigations in the Auvergne and Pyrenean mountains. Returning to Edinburgh in 1828, he conducted the publication of the Journal of Natural and Geographical Science, and delivered lectures on geology. In 1832-33 he did good service against the cholera; in 1835 he was attached as physician and geologist to the Euphrates expedition under Colonel Chesney, and returned home in 1837 through Kurdistan, the Taurus, and Asia Minor. In 1838-41 he visited the East with Rassam and Russell, their chief objects being to explore the course of the Halys, and to visit the Nestorian Christians in Kurdistan. Amongst his works are Researches in Assyria, &c. (1838); Travels in Asia Minor, &c. (1842); The Claims of the Christian Aborigines of the Turkish Empire (1843); and Travels in the Track of the 10,000 Greeks (1844). He is a member of many learned societies.