viii 



by the failure of his health in 1859. He was elected into the Royal 

 Society in 1829. 



Although the ' Review 5 never attained a commercial success, yet 

 there cannot he two opinions as to the importance of the benefits it 

 conferred on the medical profession. Previously to its commence- 

 ment there had been nothing that deserved to he called full and fair 

 criticism in medical journalism ; the so-called ' Reviews' being either 

 mere analyses of the books which they professed to criticise, or 

 confined to a general expression of the opinion formed as to their 

 merits or demerits by writers who were too frequently incapacitated 

 by ignorance or prejudice, or by both combined, to pronounce a 

 trustworthy verdict. It was Dr. Forbes' s constant object to secure 

 the services of the best-informed and most impartial contributors 

 whom he could succeed in enlisting ; and such was the estimation 

 which the ' Review* soon acquired, not only for its truthful appre- 

 ciation of the works it criticised, but for the original information 

 contained in many of its articles, that he had no difficulty in assem- 

 bling around him a staff of able and zealous assistants* over whose 

 productions he exercised a judicious editorial supervision, stamping 

 upon them everywhere his own peculiar marks of justice, accuracy, 

 and vigour. It was his constant object to give an account of the 

 progress of every department of medical science, wherever and by 

 whomsoever made ; and by this means he largely diffused an ac- 

 quaintance with the best foreign medical literature among the pro- 

 fession in this country. Constantly seeking to infuse fresh blood 

 into the organism of which he was the life, he was always glad to 

 avail himself of the assistance of young men who could give the 

 requisite evidence of ability and probity, to whom on his part he 

 afforded the benefit of his wise counsel and kindly aid ; and it would 

 not be difficult to point to several men now holding positions more 

 or less distinguished, who would gladly testify how much of their 

 subsequent success they owe to their early association with the 

 1 Review' and with its editor. It was very seldom that he himself 

 wrote more than short 'Notices' of books, or paragraphs inter- 

 polated in the longer articles of his contributors ; but he departed 

 from his usual course in 1846, putting forth (avowedly as his own) 

 a remarkable article entitled "Homoeopathy, Allopathy, and Young 

 Physic j" the purpose of which was in the first place to expose the 



