FORBES, SIR JOHN, M.D. 



FORRIN, CLAUDE. 



Ml 



ScTvotMo Tear* 1 residence in India,' Ac., 4 rpU. 4to, 1813. This work 

 includes observations on tboco parts of Africa and America at which 

 the author touched in hr several voyage*. The beauty of its 

 decoration*, more especially the coloured plate* of animals and plant*, 

 from drawing* made by the author, which hare been rarely sui-pawec 

 in spirit and beauty, obtained for it uncommon popularity. The text 

 also, though bulky, wan calculated to interest the public at Urge, as 

 cootainini:, intermixed with personal anecdote, an amusing mass of 

 mieeUanrous information concerning the Company's service, the 

 history, manners, zoology, and antiquities of Hindustan, especially 

 Ouierat, and other pro Voices on the western coast. Mr. Forbes died 

 August 1, 1819. He was a Krllow of the Royal and Antiquarian 

 societies, and the Arcadian Society of Rome. 



FORBES, SIR JOHN, Ml)., an eminent living physician. Be 

 was born in Scotland, and graduated at Edinburgh in the year 

 1817. He first settled as a physician at Penzance, and afterwards 

 at Cbichester. but subsequently came to London, where be now 

 resides. His name was tint brought before tlie profession by bis 

 translation* of the works of Avenbrugger and I-aennec on Ausculta- 

 tion and the Use of the Stethoscope. He was one of the first amongst 

 Engli>h medical men to recognise the importance and value of physical 

 diagnosis as a means of detecting diseases of the heart and limp*. 

 His translation of Laennec bus gone through five editions, and is still 

 widely read. In the year 1828 he published a work entitled ' Observa- 

 tion* on the Climate of Pencance and Lands End.' He was one of 

 the founders of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association, now 

 the British Medical Association. One of the objects of this association 

 was to obtain information with regard to the medical topography of 

 England. In the first and second volumes of the Transactions of this 

 association Sir John contributed an able memoir on the ' Medical 

 Topography of the Hundred of Pen with.' In this paper a large 

 amount of local information with.regard to the diseases of the dii-trict 

 mentioned, and their relation to tl.e soil and other physical conditions 

 of the country were investigated. It is to be regretted that inquiries of 

 this kind have not been more generally made, and that go good an 

 object of the British Medical Association has not been more) perfectly 

 accomplished. In conjunction with Dr. Conolly, Sir John Forbes was 

 the editor of the 'Cyclopaedia of Practical Medicine.' This work 

 consisted of a series of valuable articles on dUeates alphabetically 

 arranged. He contributed several of these articles himself. He was 

 also the editor of the ' liritish and Foreign Medical Review,' till it* 

 uiiii-n with the ' Medico-Chinirgical Review,' since when it has been 

 called the ' British and Foreign Medico-Chirurgical Review.' In hia 

 capacity of editor of this journal Sir John displayed unwearied 

 assiduity in the introduction of articles written by men of first-rate 

 ability, anil also a public spirit and independence which has deservedly 

 placed him amongst the benefactors of his profession. His inde- 

 pendence however, valuable as it has been to the cultivation of habits 

 of sound thought, and the spread cf a spirit of searching inquiry into 

 the principle* and practice of medicine, was not rewarded by pecu- 

 niary success, and he relinquished the ' British and Foreign Medical 

 Quarterly,' a loser in the noble cause of the literature and science of 

 his profession. He has not however been a loser in reputation. On 

 coming to London he was appointed Physician in Ordinary to Her 

 Majesty's household, and Physician Extraordinary to bis Royal High- 

 ness Prince Albert. He was early elected a Fellow of the Royal 

 Society, and the University of Oxford has honoured itself by conferring 

 on him the degrre of Doctor of Laws. Within the last few yean bo 

 has relinquished the active duties of his profession, and his love of 

 literature has displayed itself in the production of several works of a 

 lighter and more popular kind than his medical writings. In 1849 

 he published a 'Physician's Holiday, or a Month in Switzerland.' 

 This work is one of the most interesting accounts published of the 

 Well-known localities of a tour in Switzerland. In 1852 he puhli IP .1 

 an account of a tour made in Ireland under the title ' Memoranda 

 made in Ireland in the Autumn of 1852;' and in 1856 the notice 

 of another tour under the title of ' Sight-seeing in Germany sin! tip- 

 Tyrol, in the Autumn of 1866.' Sir John has ever identified himself 

 with popular progress and the cause of education. He was sn active 

 and valuable member of the Committee of the Society for the Diffu- 

 sion of Useful Knowledge. In 1863 he pave a lecture to one of the 

 literary institutions of Cbicbester, entitled 'Of Happineau in its 

 relations to Work and Knowledge.' Few men could speak more 

 competently on this subject. 



KuRBRS, JOHN, a divine and polemical writer, second son of 

 Patrick Forbes, bishop of Aberdeen, was born on the 2nd of May 

 151*3. He studied at Heidelberg and Sedan, and returned to Scotland 

 in 1019. In that year be was appointed professor of divinity iu King's 

 College, Aberdeen, an office in which he acquired a high character 

 for learning and ability. He lived during the period of the hottest 

 struggles for supremacy betwero episcopacy and Prosbyterianism ; 

 and possessed with the views of toleration snd ecclesiastical peace that 

 appear to have distinguished bis family, he published iu 1629, at 

 Aberdeen, 'Irenicum Amatoribus Vc-ritatis t Pscis in Kccleaia 

 Scotiana.' Afterward*, in 1638, when the breach between the two 

 parties, which was the commencement of the civil wars, had begun, 

 he published 'A peaceable Warning to the subjects in Scotlsnd.' 

 }le wax afterward* a lesdi r in a polemical dispute a* one of those 



generally styled " the Aberdeen doctors," who conducted, on the side 

 of Kpiscopacy, a controversy with the Covenanters. Like his coad- 

 jutors, Forbes was deprived of his benefice in 1640. His care was one 

 of peculiar hardship, for he had nltde over part of bis own private 

 property to be attached to the professorship which he held ; and he 

 lost this property on being dismissed from his office. In 1611 lie 

 went to Holland, where he married a Dutch woman named 

 Roosboom, or Sweet Rosetree. He returned to Aberdeen in 164 <>, an. I 

 died on the 29th of April 1648. Besides the works already men- 

 tioned, he published othen on kindred subjects, some of which passed 

 through more than one separate edition; and the whole, along v. Hi 

 some posthumous additions, were collectively published in his ' Opera 

 Oninia,' at Amsterdam, 2 vols. folio, 1702-3. 



Ki (KliKS, PATRICK, Bishop of Aberdeen, was born soon after th- 

 middle of the 16th century. He was the eldest son of the pro- 

 prietor of Corse, in the county of Aberdeen, where his descendant* 

 still possess estates. He studied at Stirling and Glasgow. His first 

 clerical appointment was at Keith in Morayshirc. He became Bishop 

 of Aberdeen in 1618, and died in 1635. He was the author of several 

 polemical works, which were collectively published iu Latin at 

 Amsterdam, in 1646. A curious collection of funeral rermons on hia 

 memory, by many eminent survivors, was published BOOH after his 

 death. (Irving, Lira of Scottish Wriieri, it ; Funeralt of Bidtap 

 forba ; reprinted for the Spottiswoode Society.) 



FORBKS, WILLIAM, Bishop of Edinburgh, was born at Aberdeen 

 in 1580. He studied at Marischal College in Aberdeen, which he 

 entered when he was twelve yean old. lie held for some time a 

 chair of logic in Aberdeen; and afterwards travelled in Gen 

 and Poland, studying at Ilelmstiidt and Heidelberg. On his return 

 to Britain he was offered a professorship of Hebrew in Oifonl, 

 but the state of his health induced him to return to hia native 

 country. In 1618 he was made principal of Mariscbal College. 

 We find him in 1621 ceasing to hold this office, and toon after- 

 wards becoming one of the miuitstcn of Edinburgh. In th..t 

 capacity he preached before Charles I. on his visit to Scotland in 

 1633, and the eloquence he then exhibited is said to have induced 

 the king to resolve that he should be the first bishop of Edinburgh. 

 That short-lived see was erected in the ensuing year, and Forbes was 

 appointed bishop on the 20th of January 1634. He died on the llth 

 of April of the same year. His fame is chiefly traditional His only 

 published work is posthumous : ' Consideratioues inodestjo et pacifies} 

 Controversiarum du Justificationc, I'uivatoiio, Invocations Sanctorum 

 et Christo Mcdiatore, Kucbaristia,' published in 1658. It embodied 

 a proposal for an accommodation between the Protestant Episcopal 

 churches and the Church of Home, the only result of which could be 

 to have made episcopacy regarded with more suspicion in Scotland 

 than it was. Some other polemical works which had raised high 

 expectations were lost. Buruet, characterising hia eloquence, says 

 that " he preached with a zeal and vehemence that mado him forget 

 all the measures of time two or three hours was no extraordinary 

 thing for him." 



r'oRHIN, CLAUDE, one of the most distinguished naval officers 

 that France has ever produced, was born in Provence in 1656, and 

 died in 1734. It is unnecessary to enumerate bis various exploits 

 against the English, Dutch, Venetians, and the Bsrbary powen, but 

 we cannot omit a remarkable circumstance in his life, of which he 

 has left an account in his memoirs. We allude to the attempt which 

 was made in the 17th century to introduce European civilisation into 

 the kingdom of Siarn. It originated with an adventurer, n native of 

 the Ionian Islands, called Constance Faulcon, who came at an early 

 age to England, and entered the service of the East India Company. 

 After many vicissitudes he reached Siam, and entering the strv 

 the king of that country, he succeeded iu gaining the favour not only 

 of the prime minister but even of the king himself, who on the death 

 of the minister wished to appoint t'onxtance in his place. He had the 

 good sense however to decline the title, in order to avoid i-\ 

 the jealousy of the native*, and contented himself with the exercise 

 of the power. The beginning of Constance's administration was 

 successful, and notwithstanding many difficulties, the country began 

 to improve under the administration of this able foreigner. He now 

 conceived the plan of introducing, with the assistance of the Jesuits, 

 the Christian religion, not only into Siam, but also into the adjacent 

 countries, and with that view lie persuaded the king of Siam t<> 

 three deputies to Louis XIV. The three deputies died on their way, 

 but Louis having heard of the circumnUnco sent the Chevalier 

 disunion!, accompanied by Forbin, to the Siamese monarch. Tho 

 embassy was accompanied by some troops. It concluded n treaty of 

 commerce, secured protection to the Catholic religion in Siam, and 

 turned to Franc* with an embassy from the king. Constance 

 laving prevailed on his master to take some French officer* :md 

 roops into his service, Forbin was appointed grand admiral of the 

 leet, gvnrral in-chief of .Siam, snd governor of Bangkok. The 1Y 

 roops were stationed in several parts of the kingdom; they occupi< d 

 he fortresses of Mergui and Bangkok, and the king rcqi 

 ..mi* XIV., l.y the Jesuit Tachard, to increase their mitiuer. Every- 

 hing seemed now favourable to the progress of European civilisation 

 n Siam, or rather perhaps of the views of Louis X 1 V. and l.i advisors, 

 whatever thoso views were, when jealousy between Couttino', 1 and 



