FORBES, EDWARD, an eminent naturalist, was b. at Douglas, isle of Man, Feb. 12, 1815, and d. in Edinburgh, Nov. 18,1854. He received a desultory and imperfect edu cation in early life, in consequence of ill health; but when he left home at the age of 16, he had already possessed himself of a very considerable amount of knowledge in the departments of botany, zoology, and geology. In 1831, F. went to Louden, with the intention of becoming a stu dent at the royal academy; but although he, evinced much readiness in drawing, his artistic talents were not sufficiently marked to hold out any prospect of success in the event of his making art his profession ;. and he therlfore determined to turn his attention to medicine, and with this view, entered the university of Edinburgh. In 1836, he finally relinquished his special medical studies, to devote himself exclusively to the natural sciences. In 1836-37, he attended lectures at Paris, where he studied under Geoffroy St. Hilaire, Jussieu, and De Blainville, while he at the same time availed himself with diligence of all the advantages afforded to students by the museums and libraries of Paris. From the first year of his college life, F. had spent his slimmer vacations in rambles over various parts Great , Britain, or in excur sions on the coatinent, and the results of the observations which lit Made during these tours, which were published by hint either in the form of separate works, or in the pages of current scientific journals, sufficiently attest his diligence as an observer, and his exact appreciation of analogies and differences of forms. F. may almost be regardet as the originator of the use of tire dredge, which he employed with equal success in investigating the marine fauna of our own seas, and of the Mediterranean and the .&gean. In 1841, he joined the surveying ship Beacon, as naturalist, and accompanied that vessel during the survey of a part of AsiaMinor, and co-operated in the explora tion of many of the Xanthian cities. On his return to England in 1813, he found that ho had dining his absence, been elected to the chair of botany, king's college, London. lie was soon afterwards named curator of the geological society; and from that period till his removal to Edinburgh, be remained in London, living in a vortex of scientific labors and work. In 1844, he was appointed paleontologist to the museum of geology in connection with the ordnance geological survey; and in 1851, on the opening of the-new buildings in Jermyn street, London, he was named professor of natural his tory in the school of mines. In 1852,11e was chosen president of the geological society, an honor never before conferred on so young a man; and in 1853, on the death of prof. Jameson, he was elected to the vacant chair of natural history in the university of Edin burgh. In the summer of 1854, he delivered a short course of lectures—the only one he
was destined to give—for at the commencement of the winter session he was seized with a severe illness, -which speedily proved fatal, and terminated his life in the 39th year of his age, in the very zenith of his fame, and in the full vigor of his intellectual powers. F. had been a voluminous writer and a diligent observer of nature from his earliest youth, and had collected an immense mass of materials, many of which were, however, loft at his death in a disorganized condition. He did much to advance and systematize special departments of natural history, both by his own labors and by the stimulus which he imparted to his associates and pupils; and it would be difficult to instance any naturalist who has exercised a greater influence on the thought and line of inquiry pur sued by those who have cultivated the same branches of knowledge. His classification of the British opened a new era in that branch of zoology; and his discovery that air-breathing mollusks lived at the period of the Purbeck beds, has been the means of rectifying many erroneous hypotheses, and throwing unexpected light on several hitherto obscure points of geology, while the inferences which he drew from the presence Of those animals have been fully corroborated. His report on the YEgean sea, and his observations of the tertiaries of Cos, which have proved of great value to geology, raised hint to the highest rank among living naturalists. From an early period, he had directed his attention to the distribution of animal and vegetable life in different zones of the sea and land, and his observations in this path of inquiry have opened many new fields of research. F. was a diligent contributor to the current scientific literature of the day, and many of his best papers were written for the meetings of the British association, of which he was an active member, and for the various societies with which he was con nected; while he also took a most efOcient share in the labors of the ordnance survey during his connection with its staff. His separate works, papers, and monographs, of which upwards of 200 are published, and many of which are by his own beautiful drawings, cannot be individually specified; but among them we may instance the following: On the Distrib. of Pulmonif. ifollusea in Europe (1838); Malacol. JVonensis (1838); Star Fishes (1841); The Radiates and illollusca (f the JEgean (1843); Tratels in Lyda (written in conjunctidn with lieut. Spratt, 1849); jlIcclusce (1847); British Nollusea (1833, 4 vols. 8vo, conjointly with S. Hanley); the map Of .liontoiozoic Belts (Johnston'sPhys. Atlas, 1854); Collection of Literary Papers by E. orbes (1855); etc. See Memoir by G. Wilson and A. Geikie, 1861.