4 TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



views, which I did not know of, but I will get the book" ; 

 and later on he writes — " I have read Buffo n ; whole 

 pages are laughably like mine. It is surprising how 

 candid it makes one to see one's views in another man's 

 words." 



A bright star was shining at the time of the Queen's 

 accession in the person of Edward Forbes [Plate II.] one 

 of the most genial and loveable of men, and who, in his 

 too short life, earned an undying name as a naturalist of 

 the true type. Born in 1815 at Douglas, Isle of Man, and 

 dying at Edinburgh in 1854, he crowded into 25 of those 

 39 years, as his biographers say, "more work than most 

 men accomplish even when their span of days stretches 

 beyond the allotted three score years and ten." As a 

 disciple of Cuvier, Forbes was a believer in the fixity of 

 species, looking upon the organic world as an embodiment 

 of the thoughts of the Creator. Botany, zoology, geology, 

 and palaeontology were all favourite pursuits with him 

 during his earlier years, while destined for the medical 

 profession, which, however, he never adopted, happily 

 deciding upon the career of a professor of natural history. 

 In 1842 he accepted the Chair of Botany in King's College, 

 London, and two years afterwards was appointed Palaeon- 

 tologist to the Geological Survey. Daring previous years 

 he had enjoyed frequent opportunities of foreign travel, 

 often returning to the Isle of Man, where, and around our 

 coasts, marine zoology was his favourite pursuit, and was 

 subsequently his absorbing delight. He was the first to 

 recognize the value of the dredge in zoological research. 

 In his " Natural History of the European Seas," he says, 

 " Beneath the waves there are many dominions yet to be 

 visited, and kingdoms to be discovered, and he who 

 venturously brings up from the abyss enough of their 

 inhabitants to display the physiognomy of the country, 



