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Edward Forbes FRS, FGS (12 February 1815 – 18 November 1854) was a Manx naturalist. In 1846, he proposed that the distributions of montane plants and animals had been compressed downslope, and some oceanic islands connected to the mainland, during the recent ice age. This mechanism, which was the first natural explanation to explain the distributions of the same species on now-isolated islands and mountain tops, was discovered independently by
Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended fr ...
, who credited Forbes with the idea. He also incorrectly deduced the so-called azoic hypothesis, that life under the sea would decline to the point that no life forms could exist below a certain depth.


Early years

Forbes was born at Douglas on the Isle of Man. His father was a well-to-do banker. As a child, Forbes was very interested in collecting insects, shells,
minerals In geology and mineralogy, a mineral or mineral species is, broadly speaking, a solid chemical compound with a fairly well-defined chemical composition and a specific crystal structure that occurs naturally in pure form.John P. Rafferty, ed. ...
,
fossils A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved in ...
, and plants. Due to poor health, he was unable to attend school from his 5th through his 11th years. In 1828, he started attending the Athole House Academy in Douglas. In June 1831, Forbes moved to London to study drawing but was not admitted by the Royal Academy. However, having given up on art as a profession, he trained privately and moved back to Douglas. In later years, Forbes used his artistic abilities to create humorous drawings for his publications. In November 1832, Forbes matriculated as a medical student in the University of Edinburgh attending the lectures of Robert Jameson and Robert Knox while also being active in student societies. In 1832, he studied the natural history of the Isle of Man. Forbes's brother David was a notable mineralogist.


Travels

In 1833, Forbes travelled to Norway to study its botanical resources. His findings were published in Loudon's ''
Magazine of Natural History The ''Journal of Natural History'' is a scientific journal published by Taylor & Francis focusing on entomology and zoology. The journal was established in 1841 under the name ''Annals and Magazine of Natural History'' (''Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist.'') an ...
'' for 1835–1836. The British Association funded his studies based on
dredging Dredging is the excavation of material from a water environment. Possible reasons for dredging include improving existing water features; reshaping land and water features to alter drainage, navigability, and commercial use; constructing da ...
in the Irish Sea for biological specimens. In 1835, he travelled in France, Switzerland and Germany to study their natural histories. In 1836, Forbes abandoned his medical studies and moved to Paris, where he attended the lectures at the Jardin des Plantes on natural history, comparative
anatomy Anatomy () is the branch of biology concerned with the study of the structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old science, having it ...
, geology and mineralogy. In April 1837, Forbes traveled to
Algiers Algiers ( ; ar, الجزائر, al-Jazāʾir; ber, Dzayer, script=Latn; french: Alger, ) is the capital and largest city of Algeria. The city's population at the 2008 Census was 2,988,145Census 14 April 2008: Office National des Statistiques d ...
to gather material for a paper on land and freshwater Mollusca. The paper was published in the ''Annals of Natural History'', vol. ii. p. 250. He remained in Edinburgh, paid for by his father. In 1838, Forbes published his first volume, ''Malacologia Monensis'', a synopsis of the mollusk species native to the Isle of Man. During the summer of 1838 he visited the
Duchy of Styria The Duchy of Styria (german: Herzogtum Steiermark; sl, Vojvodina Štajerska; hu, Stájer Hercegség) was a duchy located in modern-day southern Austria and northern Slovenia. It was a part of the Holy Roman Empire until its dissolution in 180 ...
(now part of
Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous c ...
and Slovenia) and
Carniola Carniola ( sl, Kranjska; , german: Krain; it, Carniola; hu, Krajna) is a historical region that comprised parts of present-day Slovenia. Although as a whole it does not exist anymore, Slovenes living within the former borders of the region st ...
in Slovenia to gather botanical speciments.


Scholarly years


Marine biology

In 1838, Forbes presented a paper to the
British Association The British Science Association (BSA) is a charity and learned society founded in 1831 to aid in the promotion and development of science. Until 2009 it was known as the British Association for the Advancement of Science (BA). The current Chie ...
at
Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area in Australia, named after Newcastle ...
on the distribution of terrestrial
Pulmonata Pulmonata or pulmonates, is an informal group (previously an order, and before that a subclass) of snails and slugs characterized by the ability to breathe air, by virtue of having a pallial lung instead of a gill, or gills. The group include ...
in Europe. He was then commissioned to prepare a survey on pulmonata in the
British Isles The British Isles are a group of islands in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Inner and Outer Hebrides, the Northern Isles, ...
. In 1841, Forbes published his ''History of British star-fishes'', embodying extensive observations and containing 120 illustrations, all designed by Forbes. On 17 April 1841, Forbes and naturalist William Thompson, joined at Malta HM surveying ship ''Beacon'', to which he had been appointed naturalist by her commander Captain Thomas Graves (1802–1856). From April 1841 until October 1842, Forbes investigated the
botany Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek w ...
, zoology and geology of the Mediterranean region. In 1843, Forbes presented a ''Report on the Mollusca and
Radiata Radiata or Radiates is a historical taxonomic rank that was used to classify animals with radially symmetric body plans. The term Radiata is no longer accepted, as it united several different groupings of animals that do not form a monophylet ...
of the
Aegean Sea The Aegean Sea ; tr, Ege Denizi (Greek: Αιγαίο Πέλαγος: "Egéo Pélagos", Turkish: "Ege Denizi" or "Adalar Denizi") is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea between Europe and Asia. It is located between the Balkans ...
'', to the British Association. In the report, he discussed the influence of climate and of the nature and depth of the sea bottom upon marine life. He divided the Aegean region into eight biological zones. In his
azoic hypothesis The Azoic hypothesis (sometimes referred to as the Abyssus theory) is a superseded scientific theory proposed by Edward Forbes in 1843, stating that the abundance and variety of marine life decreased with increasing depth and, by extrapolation of h ...
, Forbes stated that the sea regions below 300 fathom were entirely devoid of life. This hypothesis was disproved 25 years later. In 1847, Forbes published ''Travels in Lycia'' with Lieut. T. A. B. Spratt. In 1848, he published his monograph on jellyfish, the ''British Naked-eyed Medusae'' (
Ray Society The Ray Society is a scientific text publication society that publishes works devoted principally to British flora and fauna. As of 2019, it had published 181 volumes. Its publications are predominantly academic works of interest to naturalists, zo ...
). In 1852, Forbes published the fourth and concluding volume of Forbes and S. Hanley's ''History of British Mollusca'' He also published his ''Monograph of the Echinodermata of the British Tertiaries'' (Palaeontographical Soc.).


Posts in London

In 1842, financial pressures forced Forbes to take the curatorship of the museum of the Geological Society of London. In 1843, he also became a professor botany at King's College London. In November 1844, Forbes resigned the curatorship and became palaeontologist to the Geological Survey of Great Britain. Trilobite leading authority
John William Salter John William Salter (15 December 1820 – 2 December 1869) was an English naturalist, geologist, and palaeontologist. Salter was apprenticed in 1835 to James De Carle Sowerby, and was engaged in drawing and engraving the plates for Sowerby's ...
was appointed on the staff of the Geological Survey and worked under Edward Forbes until 1854. Salter replaced Forbes as palaeontologist to the survey and gave his chief attention to the Palaeozoic fossils, spending much time in Wales and the border counties. On 26 August 1848, Forbes married Emily Marianne Ashworth, the daughter of General Sir Charles Ashworth.


Botanical studies

In 1846, Forbes published in the ''Memoirs of the Geological Survey'' his important essay ''On the Connection between the distribution of the existing Fauna and Flora of the British Isles, and the Geological Changes which have affected their Area, especially during the epoch of the Northern Drift''. In this essay, Forbes divided the plants of Great Britain into five geographic groups and compared them to other regions in Europe: *The West and Southwest Irish group, related to flora from
Northern Spain Spain is a country located in southwestern Europe occupying most (about 82 percent) of the Iberian Peninsula. It also includes a small exclave inside France called Llívia, as well as the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean, the Canary Isl ...
*The Southeast Irish and Southwest English group, related to flora of the
Channel Islands The Channel Islands ( nrf, Îles d'la Manche; french: îles Anglo-Normandes or ''îles de la Manche'') are an archipelago in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They include two Crown Dependencies: the Bailiwick of Jersey ...
and nearby coastal France *The Southeast English group, characterized by species from the Northern French coast *The mountain summits group, related to Scandinavian flora *A general or Germanic flora group Forbes theorized that the majority of British terrestrial animals and flowering plants migrated there over
land bridge In biogeography, a land bridge is an isthmus or wider land connection between otherwise separate areas, over which animals and plants are able to cross and colonize new lands. A land bridge can be created by marine regression, in which sea lev ...
s before, during and after the ice age. His theory was later discredited. (see C Reid's ''Origin of the British Flora'', 1899). In 1851 Forbes was professor of natural history to the Royal School of Mines.


T. H. Huxley

Forbes served as an important mentor to the young biologist Thomas Henry Huxley. During Huxley's 1846 to 1850 voyage on to Northern Australia, Huxley relayed news of his discoveries back to Forbes in the United Kingdom, who then published them. Forbes provided Huxley with introductions to influential people, wrote a favorable review of Huxley's work, and helped his admission to the Royal Society ( FRS) at age 26.


Illustrations

Forbes's scientific illustrations have been said to be anthropomorphic, often just hiding a human form even when depicting an invertebrate. File:Forbesfrontispiece.jpg, Frontispiece to Forbes's ''Natural History of the European Seas'' (Forbes's initials are in the lower right of this cartoon depicting deep sea dredging for marine fauna) File:Forbes_cartoon.jpg, Indian cosmogony and ''Fauna Sivalensis'', cartoon by Forbes in the notebook of Hugh Falconer File:Gideon Mantell engaged in battle by Edward Forbes.jpeg, Drawing by Forbes of
geologist A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid, liquid, and gaseous matter that constitutes Earth and other terrestrial planets, as well as the processes that shape them. Geologists usually study geology, earth science, or geophysics, alth ...
Gideon Mantell engaged in battle with flying dinosaurs on the English coastline, c. 1830s


Final years

In 1853 Forbes became president of the Geological Society of London. In 1854, he was appointed professor of natural history at the University of Edinburgh, a long sought goal. During his later years, Forbes found more time in between lecturing and writing to order his stores of biological information. In the summer of 1854, Forbes lectured at Edinburgh and in September served as president of the geological section at the Liverpool meeting of the British Science Association. He served briefly as Professor of Natural History in succession to Prof
Robert Jameson Robert Jameson Robert Jameson FRS FRSE (11 July 1774 – 19 April 1854) was a Scottish naturalist and mineralogist. As Regius Professor of Natural History at the University of Edinburgh for fifty years, developing his predecessor John ...
. In November 1854, soon after the start of winter classes at Edinburgh, Forbes became ill. He died at Wardie Parish, near Edinburgh, on 18 November 1854. He was interred at the
Dean Cemetery The Dean Cemetery is a historically important Victorian cemetery north of the Dean Village, west of Edinburgh city centre, in Scotland. It lies between Queensferry Road and the Water of Leith, bounded on its east side by Dean Path and on ...
in Edinburgh. In 1859, a former student of Forbes;
James Hector Sir James Hector (16 March 1834 – 6 November 1907) was a Scottish-New Zealand geologist, naturalist, and surgeon who accompanied the Palliser Expedition as a surgeon and geologist. He went on to have a lengthy career as a government employe ...
dedicated
Mount Forbes Mount Forbes is the seventh tallest mountain in the Canadian Rockies and the tallest within the boundaries of Banff National Park. It is located in southwestern Alberta, southwest of the Saskatchewan River Crossing in Banff. The mountain was n ...
in what is now
Banff National Park Banff National Park is Canada's oldest national park, established in 1885 as Rocky Mountains Park. Located in Alberta's Rocky Mountains, west of Calgary, Banff encompasses of mountainous terrain, with many glaciers and ice fields, dense conif ...
in
Alberta, Canada Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Terri ...
to his memory. The following Forbes works were issued posthumously: *''On the Tertiary Fluviomarine Formation of the Isle of Wight'' (Geol. Survey), edited by RAC Godwin-Austen (1856) *''The Natural History of the European Seas'', edited and continued by RAC Godwin-Austen (1859). Forbes's widow provided papers to George Wilson to write up the memoirs of Forbes. Wilson however died in 1859 and his sister then passed on the papers to Archibald Geikie who had met Forbes only twice. Forbes's widow married Major Yelverton in 1858 and forbade Geikie to work on the memoirs, seeking back all the papers. Forbes's brother however wished that Geikie finish the book as did the publisher Alexander Macmillan. In 1860, it was found that Yelverton had earlier married Maria Teresa Longworth and the separation had not been made with a witness. Yelverton was accused of bigamy and Teresa Longworth wrote about her plight in a book ''Martyrs to Circumstance.'' Mrs Forbes had two sons by Yelverton and with the case being in the limelight, she had no time to apply pressure on Geikie. Geikie however had to exercise considerable diplomacy while writing the biography as Forbes had claimed that he had been sufficiently remunerated by the School of Mines.


See also

*
European and American voyages of scientific exploration The era of European and American voyages of scientific exploration followed the Age of Discovery and were inspired by a new confidence in science and reason that arose in the Age of Enlightenment. Maritime expeditions in the Age of Discovery were ...
* "The New Museum Idea"


Notes


References

* * ;Attribution * Endnotes: ** ''Literary Gazette'' (25 November 1854); ** ''Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal'' (New Ser.), (1855); ** ''Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc.'' (May 1855); ** G. Wilson and A. Geikie, ''Memoir of Edward Forbes'' (1861), in which, pp. 575–583, is given a list of Forbes's writings. ** ''Literary Papers'', edited by Lovell Reeve (1855).


External links

*
''Memoir of Edward Forbes''
by George Wilson and Archibald Geikie (MacMillan and Edmonston co., 1861)

by Thomas Huxley (''Journal of Science and Literary Gazette'', 1854); Clarke College
Manx Worthies: Professor Edward Forbes
(an

, by A.W. Moore (''The Manx Note Book, Vol. iii'', 1887)

Western Kentucky University Western Kentucky University is a public university in Bowling Green, Kentucky. It was founded by the Commonwealth of Kentucky in 1906, though its roots reach back a quarter-century earlier. It operates regional campuses in Glasgow, Elizabethtow ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Forbes, Edward 1815 births 1854 deaths British geologists Manx people Fellows of the Royal Society Academics of King's College London Presidents of the Geological Society of London Fellows of the Geological Society of London Academics of the University of Edinburgh Burials at the Dean Cemetery Alumni of the University of Edinburgh People from Douglas, Isle of Man British Geological Survey British malacologists