CHAPTER II 



THE LIFE AND WORK OF EDWARD FORBES, 

 THE MANX NATURALIST (1815-1854) 



During the year 1915 enthusiastic meetings were held at 

 Douglas, in the Isle of Man, and by Manx societies in London ^ 

 and elsewhere, to celebrate the centenary of the birth of 

 Edward Forbes, the distinguished Manx naturalist, who was 

 a notable figure in British science during the second quarter 

 of the nineteenth century. 



A century before, in 1815, the Napoleonic wars were just 

 ending. In the earlier part of the year when Edward Forbes 

 was born, Waterloo had not yet been fought. Napoleon was 

 still at large, and the state of public affairs was, in some 

 respects, not unlike what we were passing through a few years 

 ago. Europe was then also an armed camp, most of the 

 great nations were at war, and then, as again a hundred years 

 later, this country was fighting, along with allies, against the 

 greatest military power of the time— fighting for the cause 

 of humanity and freedom against the tyranny of a military 

 autocracy. 



Before the time of the Crimean War and the Indian 

 Mutiny, Forbes was dead ; so his brief life was lived in a 

 time of peace, when notable advances were made in the Arts 

 and Sciences, and in their application to University educa- 

 tion, in all of which he played a prominent part. 



1 For some of the statements in the following pages I am indebted 

 to speeches made on these occasions, and more especially to the 

 excellent Memoir of Edward Forbes, published in 1861, by Professors 

 George Wilson and Archibald Geikie. 



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