vi PREFACE 



as an Alpine explorer, and, as* far as Britain is con- 

 cerned, the father of Alpine adventure ; his work as a 

 professor and a university reformer ; lastly, his character 

 as a man. In this last aspect he was no less worthy of 

 regard than in his other and more public capacities. 



1. The description and estimate of Forbes in the first 

 of these aspects has been undertaken by one who was 

 his student, and is his successor in the Natural Phi- 

 losophy chair of Edinburgh University, Professor P. G. 

 Tait. The chapters headed 'Forbes' Scientific Work' 

 are from his pen. Before writing them, however, he 

 had the advantage of discussing the whole subject fully 

 and frequently with his friend and Forbes' friend, Sir 

 William Thomson of Glasgow University, who has a 

 after these chapters were in proof, carefully gone over 

 them and weighed their contents. Every statement 

 which they contain may therefore be regarded as not 

 merely proceeding from Professor Tait, but as en- 

 dorsed by Sir William Thomson a double guarantee 

 for accuracy, which in delicate matters of discovery is 

 of high value. 



2. The . description of Forbes' travels and labours 

 among the Alps is written by Mr. A. Adams-Reilly, 

 himself a well-known Alpine traveller, whose conver- 

 sation and letters on his favourite subjects were to 

 Forbes, in his later years, like a renewal of his own 



