Edward Forbes, an English naturalist, born in Douglas, isle of Man, early in 1815, died at Wardie, near Edinburgh, Nov. 18, 1854. In his 17th year he went to London with some idea of becoming a painter, and acquired a facility in drawing which afterward proved of great assistance in his scientific explorations. In 1831 he went to Edinburgh, where he studied medicine, but devoted himself especially to investigations in natural history, and never took the degree of M. D. Dredging in the waters for specimens of submarine zoology, which at the commencement of his studies was a comparatively new occupation to naturalists, became under his hands the means of opening a new field of research; and the results of his labors, published in the Magazine of Natural History," under the title of "Records'of the Results of Dredging," were among his earliest contributions to scientific literature. In his 18th-year he made a summer excursion to Norway, bringing back abundant specimens of its rocks, plants, and mollusca. He remained connected with the university of Edinburgh till 1839, varying his residence there by excursions to southern Europe, the Mediterranean, and Algeria. The greater part of 1837 he passed in Paris studying geology, mineralogy, and zoology, and working in the museum and collections of the jardin des plantes.

During this period he published also papers on the Mollusca of the Isle of Man," the Land and Fresh-Water Mollusca of Algiers," on the "Distribution of the Pulmonifera of Europe," etc. In 1841 he published his History of British Star Fishes," with 120 illustrations. In the spring of 1841 he went as naturalist on the surveying ship Beacon, destined for the coast of Asia Minor, where she was to receive the Xanthian marbles, the existence of which had recently been made known by the explorations of Sir Charles Fellows. During the 18 months that Mr. Forbes remained on board the vessel he established by dredging operations in various depths of water the fact that the distribution of marine life, like that of terrestrial animals and vegetables, is determined by certain fixed laws, and that the zones which the different species inhabit are as distinctly marked in the one case by the climate and the depth and composition of the water, as in the other by temperature, altitude, and other influences. The results of these researches were given in a paper entitled Report on the Mollusca and Radiata of the Aegean Sea, and on their Distribution, considered as bearing on Geology," which was read before the meeting of the British association in Cork in 1843. He also assisted in the excavations of the cities on the Lycian Xanthus, the ruins of 20 of which he was instrumental in discovering.

In 1846 he published, in conjunction with Lieut. Spratt, "Travels in Lycia, Milyas, and the Cibyratis." In the latter part of 1842 he was recalled to England by his appointment as professor of botany in King's college, London, and was soon afterward appointed curator of the museum of the geological society, and palaeontologist of the new museum of practical geology, established in connection with the ordnance geological survey. He subsequently became professor of natural history at this institution. Among the first fruits of his labors was a treatise 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" (1846), in which the conclusions arrived at, after investigations in an unusually wide field of speculative research, are that the fauna and flora of Britain, both terrestrial and marine, are members of families inhabiting a contiguous continent, which at no very remote period existed in the Atlantic, whence they migrated before, during, or after the glacial epoch.

Of papers on zoology and geology he prepared previous to 1850 upward of 89, exclusive of his botanical papers or those published after that date, which are numerous; and his note books and collections contained the materials for many more. One of the most important works in which he took part after his connection with the geological society was the preparation of the palaeontological and geological map of the British isles, to which he appended an explanatory dissertation and a map of the Distribution of Marine Life." In 1852 he was elected president of the geological society, and in the succeeding year obtained the professorship of natural history in the university of Edinburgh. He delivered a course of lectures in Edinburgh in the summer of 1854, but was soon after attacked by a disease of the kidneys, which ultimately proved fatal. In addition to the works enumerated, Prof. Forbes assisted Mr. Hanley in the preparation of the History of British Mollusca (4 vols. 8vo, 1853), the descriptions in which were written by himself, and contributed important information respecting the distribution of plants and animals to a revised edition of Johnston's "Physical Atlas" He also possessed a considerable knowledge of general literature, which in the intervals of his scientific labors he assiduously cultivated; and after his death his friends were surprised to learn that for a number of years he had been a regular contributor of miscellaneous articles to the columns of the London" Athenreum" and "Literary Gazette," a collection of which was published under the title of Literary Papers by the late Edward Forbes," with a Memoir by Huxley (12mo, 1855). His other posthumous publications are: Zoology of the Voyage of II. M. Ship Herald" (3 vols. 4to), and "Mollusca and Radiata of the Voyage of H. M. Ship Herald," the latter written in conjunction with Prof. Huxley.