376 Biographical Notice of Edward Forbes. 
those anticipations of a brilliant scientific career, justified by the 
position he had attained and by the opportunities. placed within 
his reach were doomed to bitter disappointment. These reflec- 
tions are most painful, and, were I to follow my own inclinations, 
I would willingly forego all further allusion to the subject; but 
such a course would bea betrayal of duty towards our departed 
friend, and would disappoint the justly-founded expectations which 
you entertain of hearing a more detailed account of the distin- 
guished and amiable man whose loss we so deeply deplore. 
Epwarp Forses was born in the Isle of Man, in the month of 
February, 1815. He evinced, at a very early age, an unusual 
taste for the study of natural history, and began to form a small 
museum when scarcely seven years old. A few years later he 
commenced his geological studies with the perusal of Buckland’s 
‘Reliquiz Diluvianz,’ Parkinson’s ‘Organic Remains,’ and Cony- 
beare’s ‘Geology of England,’ exhibiting at the same time a more 
than usual taste for drawing. 
He visited London at the age of sixteen, and was then engaged 
in studying drawing under Sass, but this was not enough to oc- 
cupy his eager and ardent mind. He proceeded in 1831 to Edin- 
burgh, where he devoted his whole time and energies to the pur- 
suit of his favorite subject of natural history, while professing to 
overcome his repugnance for the study of medicine, the ostens!- 
ble object of his matriculation. But medicine as a profession had 
no charms for one whose whole soul was filled with a love of 
the beautiful, and with an intense admiration of the works of 
Nature in every varied form. He cultivated his taste for natural 
history under the able teaching of such men as Professors Jame- 
son and Graham. He delighted particularly in the botanical ex- 
cursions of the latter, who was accustomed periodically to lea 
forth his pupils to the Highlands ; thus making Nature herself, in 
her truest and loveliest garb, afford the practical illustrations of 
the teaching of the class-room. 
At this period of his life, scarcely a year passed without some 
botanizing or dredging excursion, and long before he arrived at 
manhood, he had made himself well acquainted with the Fauna 
of the Irish Sea, on the shores of his native island. At the age 
gan to direct his attention to botanical geography, the forerunner 
of those deep and philosophical views respecting the geographical 
distribution of the Flora and Fauna of the world which he sub- 
sequently developed, and which constitute one of the most in- 
teresting and leading features of all his writings. 
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