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zoologist, all know his merits ; and as a botanist, his acquirements 

 were so well thought of, that during his absence in the East, the 

 Chair of Botany at King's College, London, vacated by the death 

 of the lamented Professor Don, was, without solicitation on his part, 

 conferred upon him. The intelligence of this appointment put an 

 end to his meditated project of further travel in Egypt and on the 

 shores of the Red Sea, and Professor Forbes returned to enter upon 

 the duties of his post in 1843. 



Launched into the great world of London, Forbes's further pro- 

 gress was not more due to his intellectual than to his moral cha- 

 racteristics. His singular sociality and geniality, the gentleness 

 of his manner, and his ready sympathy with and comprehension of 

 all phases of human character, won for him a prominent place, what- 

 ever the society into which he was thrown. Among his fellow- 

 students, Edward Forbes was the leader, whether the thing to be 

 done were the editing of a mock ' Maga,' the writing and illustrating 

 a song, or a downright piece of hard work. He had no quarrels 

 himself, soothed them among others, and altogether kept men toge- 

 ther as no one else could do. 



It was these rare peculiarities which, together with his high in- 

 tellectual qualifications, recommended him to the authorities of the 

 Geological Society, when a vacancy occurred in the Curatorship of 

 their Museum. 



Professor Forbes accepted this post in 1 842, and availing himself 

 of the opportunities for the study of palaeontology thus afforded him, 

 he soon distinguished himself in the field to which henceforth his 

 energies were principally directed. In fact, when in 1844 he re- 

 signed his Curatorship. it was to join the Geological Survey of Great 

 Britain, under the direction of Sir Henry De la Beche, and to take 

 the official position of Palaeontologist to the Survey, a post in dis- 

 charging whose duties he spent the next ten years of his life. 



When the Museum of Practical Geology and the Government 

 School of Mines were established growing as they did out of the 

 Survey, Prof. Forbes directed the arrangement of the beautiful 

 collection of fossils now displayed in the former, and became Lec- 

 turer on Natural History and Palaeontology in the latter part of the 

 Institution in Jermyn Street. At the same time, many valuable 

 contributions to the ' Transactions of the Geological Society,' to the 



