His papers from this time became very numerous. The materials be accumulated in his various excursions were truly astonishing, and be lived to publish but a comparatively small proportion of them.
In 1841 ha published a 'History of 13ritish Star-Fishes,' containing accounts of several new species, with charming descriptions of the habits of these animals, and incidents connected with catching them, whilst the tail-pieces from his own pencil were worthy a disciple of Bewick. In this year he accepted the appointment of naturalist to 11.31. S. Beacon, commander Captain Graves, who,was commissioned to bring the marbles from Lycia, discovered by Sir Charles Fellows. Here new fields were opened up to him. For the first time the resources of a ship of war were placed at the disposal of a naturalist. The result of this voyage was the discovery of the great law, that among marine animals zones of depth corresponded to parallels of latitude. This law was announced at the meeting of the British Association held at Cork in 1843. The detailed results of this voyage were never given to the world, and Forbes always looked forward to the day when a little leisure would permit him to publish in detail his researches. But be had to work for his daily bread, and, to the disgrace of his country, no position was provided for him in which the necessary leisure could be found, till it was too late.
Other results came out of his Lycian excursions. In conjunction with Lieutenant, now Captain, Spratt, he published his travels in Lydia, with numerous illustrations made from his own drawings, and notes on the natural history of the &germ.
It was in Lycia that be contracted the same form of remittent fever which killed one of his companions, the Itev. Mr. Dauiell, and from the effects of which he suffered to the day of his death.
Whilst away in the Alvan, he was appointed to the Professorship of Botany in King's College, London, vacated by the death of Mr. David Don. Although he had resolved on a visit to Egypt and a dredging excursion to the Red Sea, the offer of a chair in London was too much in accordance with his tastes to refuse. He now deliberately gave up the medical profession, and became a naturalist for the rest of his life. He gave his first lecture in May 1844, and in the same year he was appointed assistant secretary to the Zoological Society. Both situations contributed to the development of his genius, for whilst the professorship compelled him to arrange and systematise his knowledge, and developed his power of communicating its results, the secretaryship afforded him a means of extending his acquaintance with fossils, and the relations of extinct with recent forms of both animals and plants.
These offices however preceded one more important still, that of palmontologist to the Geologies.] Society of Great Britain. When the Museum of Economic Geology was removed to Jermyn-street, and the School of Mines founded, he was appointed professor of natural history. Although prevented by these appointments from publishing all he had already stored up, he added here fresh stores to his stock of knowledge, and numerous. memoirs and papers in the Natural History Journals, the Proceedings of the Zoological Society, and the Transactions of the Geological Society, attest his great observing powers and unwearied industry. One of the most important of these papers is entitled On the connection between the distribution of the existing Fauna and Flora of the British Isles, and the geological changes which have affected their area.' This paper attempts to explain the dis tribution of the plants and animals of the British Islands, ou the hypothesis that they were all diffused from a common centre, and that consequently they must have been disseminated wheu these islands were continuous with those countries where the identical species are found. Ile then brings forward geological evidence to support his assertions, and even goes so far as to point out the fact, that at one time and that recentlyedry ground existed between the south-western portions of the British Islands and'America.
In 1854 Professor Forbes was elected president of the Geological Society. In the same year be accepted the chair of Natural History in the University of Edinburgh. He was president of the geological section of the British Association which met at Liverpool in September. He died on the 18th of November iu tho same year. The Edinburgh chair was the object of his highest ambition. The increasing years of Professor Jameson rendered it not improbable even when he was a student that he might one day Lope to fill this honourable post. He commenced the duties of his new position with his usual ardour, laid down a course of action which would have required years of develop ment, but he had barely time to deliver a preliminary summer course before he was seized with a disease of the kiducys which proved fatal in a few days.