to the British fauna and many valuable facts to geology. In the spring of 1850 he gave twelve lectures at the Royal Institution on the ‘Geographical Distribution of Organised Beings.’ The Jermyn Street museum was opened by Prince Albert on 12 May 1851, and during the summer a scheme for establishing a school of mines was matured. Forbes was appointed lecturer on natural history as applied to geology and the arts. The school opened in November with a few pupils, but it is recorded that the districts that memorialised for mining schools sent no pupils; and matters improved little during the remainder of Forbes's life in London, so that he had to make the serious effort of lecturing in his best style without adequate pay or results. He wrote a delightful article on ‘Shellfish, their Ways and Works,’ for the first number of the new series of the ‘Westminster Review’ (January 1852). During the winter of 1852–3 he worked out important new views on the classification of the tertiary formations, which he did not live to complete in memoir form, but which were published by his colleagues in 1858 (see infra). In February 1853 he was elected president of the Geological Society, an office never before held by so young a man. In the summer he spent a short holiday in geologising in France. Returning to London, Jameson's resignation was conditionally announced, but the temporary appointment of a deputy postponed a new appointment till Jameson's death in April 1854. Backed by overwhelming influence, Forbes was elected to the Edinburgh professorship and was pressed to commence lecturing at once. His leave-taking of the Geological Society on going north was marked by an eloquent speech from Sir R. Murchison, dwelling especially on Forbes's power of attaching every one to him.
The Edinburgh work was entered on with an eager zeal far too exhausting. Crowded audiences stimulated the lecturer's powers to the highest degree. He set vigorously to work to remodel Jameson's museum. Geological excursions with large numbers of students filled up each week. Early in August he returned to London to complete unfinished work, but illness overtook him. He was, however, present at the Liverpool meeting of the British Association, and presided over the geological section, but was considerably worn. His last writing was a review of Murchison's ‘Siluria,’ which appeared in the ‘Quarterly Review,’ October 1854. He had also undertaken to be joint editor of the ‘New Philosophical Journal,’ formerly conducted by Jameson. He lectured through the first week of the winter session in manifest ill-health, but in the second week had to desist, owing to disease of the kidneys, of which he died on 18 Nov. 1854, in his fortieth year. He was buried on 23 Nov. in the Dean cemetery, Edinburgh. By his will he left his papers to Mr. R. Godwin-Austen and his natural history collections to the College Museum at Edinburgh. Mrs. Forbes and two children, a boy and a girl, survived him. Mrs. Forbes married in 1858 Major William Charles Yelverton [q. v.], afterwards fourth viscount Avonmore. Busts of Forbes were subscribed for and placed in the Museum of Practical Geology, Jermyn Street, and in the Edinburgh Museum, and a bronze medal and prize of books were founded, to be given to the most deserving student in natural history at the Royal School of Mines.
Forbes lived an unusually full life, occupied in promoting science and arousing enthusiasm and awakening intelligence in others. To almost every department of biology he rendered much service, especially by connecting various branches together and illustrating one by the other. He played an important part in elevating palæontology to a high position in practical geology, and in elucidating ancient British zoology. He had a remarkable talent for discovering the relations of detached phenomena to the general scheme of nature and making broad generalisations; and he looked on the world not as a mere piece of mechanism, but as a visible manifestation of the ideas of God. Many who knew him testified that ‘the old mourned him as a son, the young as a brother.’ An eminent naturalist, writing in the ‘Literary Gazette,’ 25 Nov. 1854, said: ‘Rare as was the genius of Edward Forbes, his character was rarer still. … A thorough spirit of charity seemed to hide from him all but the good and worthy points in his fellow-men. Worked to death, his time and his knowledge were at the disposal of all comers; and, though his published works have been comparatively few, his ideas have been as the grain of mustard-seed in the parable.’ Forbes's love of social life and his vigorous and genial humour are apparent throughout his career. His humorous verses have not been collected, but several are published in the first two lives mentioned below. One on the ‘Red Tape Worm’ contains the following lines:—
In Downing Street the tape worms thrive;
In Somerset House they are all alive;
And slimy tracks mark where they crawl
In and out along Whitehall.
......
When I'm dead and yield my ghost,
Mark not my grave by a government post;
Let mild earth worms with me play,
But keep vile tape worms far away.
