FORBES, DAVID , British mineralogist, metal lurgist and chemist, brother of Edward Forbes (q.v.), was born on Sept. 6, 1828, at Douglas, Isle of Man, and studied chemistry at the university of Edinburgh. He was superintendent of the min ing and metallurgical works at Espedal in Norway, then a partner in the firm of Evans & Askin, nickel-smelters, of Birmingham, and in that capacity during the years 1857-6o visited Chile, Bolivia and Peru. His observations on the geology of South America threw much light on igneous and metamorphic phenomena and on the resulting changes in rock-f ormations. In England he was a pioneer in microscopic petrology. He was elected F.R.S. in 1858, and died in London on Dec. 5, 1876.
Forbes wrote upwards of 5o papers on scientific subjects, among which are the following: "The Action of Sulphurets on Metallic Silicates at High Temperatures," Rep. Brit. Assoc., 1855, pt. ii. p. 62; "The Relations of the Silurian and Metamorphic Rocks of the South of Norway," ib. p. 82 ; "The Causes Producing Foliation in Rocks," loam. Geol. Soc. xi., 1855 ; "The Chemical Composition of the Silurian and Cambrian Limestones," Phil. Mag. xiii. pp. 1857 ; "The Geology of Bolivia and Southern Peru," Journ. Geol. Soc. xvii. pp. 7-62, 1861; "The Mineralogy of Chile," Phil. 1865; "Researches in British Mineralogy," Phil. Mag., 1867-68. See the obituary notices by P. M. Duncan in Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. xxxiii., 1877, and by J. Morris in Geol. Mag., 1577.