Sketch of the Life of the late Professor Edward Forbes. 43 



College on May 8, 1843, and is a valuable one, full of original 

 views and of potent arguments in favour of the educational value 

 of Natural History. He now rose rapidly in favour. In 1843 

 he was appointed Curator and Assistant Secretary of the Geo- 

 logical Society of London, and became a Fellow of the Linnsean 

 Society. At the meeting of the British Association at Cork this 

 year he read a Report on the MoUusca and Radiata of the iEgean 

 Sea ; and as connected with his jEgean ' Travels,' he subse- 

 quently published remarks on the light thrown on geology by 

 submarine researches. In October 1843 he writes thus : — 



" Geological Museum, Somerset House. 

 " Dear Balfour, 



" I have intended to write to you for a very long time, but inten- 

 tions are not always deeds with me, in consequence of having a mass 

 of work in hand, — mostly not my own, — which must be done, and 

 which absorbs all my time. The fact is I have too much to do, — 

 this geological post being a desperately fatiguing one, and leaving 

 but little time for my more legitimate occupation at King's College. 

 My class last summer went off very well. I had a most excellent 

 set of men, who behaved admirably and never flagged in attendance. 

 I had three or four excursions of much interest, managed in our old 

 fashion, alarming the neighbouring villages by an invasion of twenty 

 or so vasculiferi. Shaw acted as my esquire and jester on all these 

 occasions, and Lankester, with some other amateurs, also occasionally 

 joined my ranks. My pupils were 48 in number, next to Lindley's, 

 the best botanical class in London. If the 48 all paid the fees into 

 my pocket * more Scotico,' it would be very satisfactory, but the Col- 

 lege absorbs more than a fourth of it, so that my receipts were much 

 under the hundred, and as in one's first course there are many ex- 

 penses, I get but little out of the total. As the College has a dia- 

 gram painter, there was a saving on that score ; for being obliged to 

 be at the Geological all day long, I have no time to paint diagrams. 

 The most provoking want is having no botanic garden, and I have 

 no spare days to run after and make friends with gardeners, so that 

 I have great difficulty in procuring fresh illustrations. Hooker 

 offered me them from Kew, but on condition that I should go and 

 select for myself personally, which is impossible as I am situated. 

 We have a capital herbarium at the College, but when it is to be put 

 into the state it should be I really cannot tell. It vexes me much 

 thus to find myself unable to give sufficient time to any one thing. 



*'The Medical Professors at King's are a capital set of men, en- 

 thusiastic and talented. I have a fine room for a Museum, and 

 should desire nothing better than time and fortune to do as I like 

 there. I am now only beginning to touch my Eastern plants. When 

 they are sorted they shall be distributed, but I cannot promise as to 

 the time. My pupils in the Beacon are collecting with great success, 

 and sent me a few days ago a beautiful little parcel from Mount Ida 

 in Crete, including some things which may be new. 



