20 President s Address. 



although a passion, were merely a relaxation, not an occupation. 

 His books were written in the leisure of his evenings at home, 

 and published with the hope of enlisting more general interest 

 in the study of natural history. He was one of the earliest, 

 strongest, and most consistent advocates for the adoption of 

 natural history as a regular part of the education of our youth, 

 and he lived to see the realisation of much of his dream. Mr. 

 Patterson was one of the seven founders of the Society in 182 f. 

 He passed through almost every minor office in it till 1852, 

 when on Mr. Thompson's death he was elected president, an 

 office which he subsequently filled on more than one occasion. 

 Referring to Professor Forbes, the speaker said he was an 

 original commanding genius, and a most interesting personality. 

 He was born at Douglas, Isle of Man, on the 12th February, 

 1 815, and died at Edinburgh on the i8th November, 1854, aged 

 only thirty-nine years and nine months. During his short life 

 he accomplished an enormous amount of work. Mr. Patterson 

 then gave some very interesting particulars of Forbes's life, 

 taken from his biography. His first visit to Ireland seemed to 

 have been in 1840, and at Belfast, his biography states, he 

 found his old friends and fellow-naturalists, William Thompson 

 and Robert Patterson. In 1844 Forbes received the appoint- 

 ment of palaeontologist to the Geological Survey, and he now 

 entered into a position congenial to his tastes, which gave 

 him more leisure than the offices he had previously filled. He 

 married in 1848 a daughter of General Sir C. Ashworth, whom 

 he met when visiting a friend's house. His married life was 

 very happy, but all too short. In 1851 the School of Mines, 

 which might be regarded as an outcome of the Geological 

 Survey, was established, and in it Forbes got the appointment 

 of lecturer on natural history as applied to geology and the arts. 

 The height of Forbes's ambition was reached in 1854, when he 

 was appointed, on the death of his aid master. Professor Jameson, 

 to the chair of natural history in the University of Edinburgh. 

 His Edinburgh duties commenced under the most favourable 

 auspices and amid great enthusiasm on the 15th May, and 



