Peter Roget

Peter Mark Roget (January 18 1779–September 12 1869) studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh and became a distinguished physician and lexicographer. He also helped found the School of Medicine at the University of Manchester.

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He is best known for creating the Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases (Roget's Thesaurus), a classified collection of related words. He was also one of the founders of the Medical and Chirurgical Society of London, which later became the Royal Society of Medicine, and a secretary of the Royal Society.

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On December 9 1824, Roget presented a paper entitled Explanation of an optical deception in the appearance of the spokes of a wheel when seen through vertical apertures. This article is often incorrectly referenced as either On the Persistence of Vision with Regard to Human Motion or Persistence of Vision with regard to Moving Objects, likely due to erroneous citations by film historians Terry Ramsaye and Arthur Knight (see Anderson and Anderson below).

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While Roget's explanation of the illusion was probably wrong, his consideration of the illusion of motion was an important point in the History of Film, and probably influenced the development of the Thaumatrope, the Phenakistiscope and the Zoetrope.

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Roget died while on holiday and is buried in the cemetery of St James's Church, West Malvern, Worcestershire.

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January 18: January 18 is the 18th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 347 days remaining (348 in leap years)...

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