EDWARD FORBES 31 



known at the time, but required to be modified later on when 

 the deep-sea dredging expeditions, which Forbes's work had 

 stimulated, made known that an abundant living fauna 

 extended down to the greatest depths of the abysses. 



Taken altogether, it is a wonderful volume of work both 

 in quantity and quality for a man to have produced who died 

 before reaching the age of forty. His working life, even con- 

 sidering that he began original work very young, was limited 

 to about twenty years, and it is reasonable to suppose that, 

 had he lived, he would have made Edinburgh the greatest 

 centre of marine biological work in Europe. That was 

 evidently the opinion of his contemporaries. It is on record 

 that he was worshipped by the men, old and young, who 

 attended his first and only course of lectures in Edinburgh. 

 They spoke of the wonderful influence, charm, and fascination 

 that Forbes exercised on all who came in contact with him, 

 and of the gloom and consternation which spread over the 

 university when it was reahzed that he would never again 

 meet his class. 



Forbes was appointed to the goal of his ambition, the 

 Chair of Natural History, at Edinburgh, in March, 1854. 

 He gave a course of lectures in the summer term to a large 

 and enthusiastic audience, after which he returned to London 

 to finish off work for the Geological Survey until driven to 

 take a brief holiday in the country by a severe attack of 

 illness. In September the British Association met in Liver- 

 pool, and Forbes occupied the honourable position of 

 President of the Geological Section, in which, we are told, he 

 acquitted himself with great distinction— as he did likewise 

 when presiding, in the character of a Scottish Lion, at the 

 Red Lion Dinner during the same meeting. 



His last pubHshed article, written at this time, a review 

 of Sir R. Murchison's Siluria, contains a memorable 

 passage, beginning : — 



" The old Scandinavian gods amused themselves all day 

 in their Valhalla hacking each other to small pieces, but when 



