the pursuit of starfishes and on the track or snails.

The points course of lectures which he ever delivered in the university chair at of the biography which are of the greatest moment to the saientifib Edinburgh„ the students, we are told, were even more fascinated by reputation of the hero, and which are made vivid by his own fullest his drawings on the slate in coloured chalks than by the lectures with satisfaction, are necessarily anything- but luminous points to the which he accompanied them, " When he was demonstrating- the general reader: That air-breathing mollusca existed in the 'Purbeck structure of those almost translucent marine creatures or which lie beds is a discovery which; in the mind of 'a geologist, sheds a certain was the prime. expositor, the interest- of his original descriptions was halo of glory round the discoverer, but ordinary humankind perceives ahnost lost in the admiration of the beautifully gracefid forms which the excitement which the disclosure occasions with a blank and nnin- :seemed to arise,, as if by magic, from beneath his long and delicate. structed mind. Renee the biographer of such a man as the late.Mr. fingers, and a murmur of applause was not refrained from by his Forbes is at a great disadvantage as compared with title biographerof admiring audience—spectators, rather, they might then be called."- an-equally eminent politician or literary man; oreven of an original en- This faculty for rapid and skilful drawing; combined with a- very gineer like George Stephenson ; for he is quite unable to share hisown fine sense of the grotesque, lends one of the most amusing- elements pride in his hero's discoveries with nine-tenths oP his readers. It is to the present volume. Throughout life he was exceedingly fond' of like expressing joy to a sympathetic stranger in a foreign language ;- covering his books and papers with fanciful grotesque figures of his the general reader is aware that there is ground for immense eon- own invention, and his biographers have had the wit, and we may gratulation, but is wholly unable to adapt- himself to the details of say the humanity, to strew these, in the shape of vignettes, freely the occasion. Wherever the career of scientific discovery begins, ;through the present volume. They are fidl of quaint humour. We there the ordinary reader's interest begins to fail, so that what is ;wish it were in our power to transfer one-of them.too.ur own co, most interesting to mankind at large in a life like- that- of Mr: FOrbes aumns. Let our readers-, for instance, look at the. vignette on p. 335, is not that which is most remarkable and unique in his intellectual Dr. Mitntell having-proposed; at a meeting of the- Geological Seciety, achievements ; and that which is most remarkable- and- unique in-his that the bones of the dicynodon in the Society's collection should be

intellectual achievements is not. interesting -to mankind at large, "properly cleaned and dressed;" Forbes instantly drew on a sheet of

This Lea been areal difficulty to the authors of the ',resent memoir, paper before him a representation of the dieynodon, as his conception and we cannot say that they have entirely- overcome it. There, is a of how the creature would look when "properly cleaned and dressed!). sincere and at times- a very successful attempt to lend the book He has certainly managed to give an expression of tame Sunday- human interest, and Mr. Forbes was so full of genuine vivacity and clothes propriety to the animal inexpressibly laughable. fascination that no one, howeverunscientific in his tastes, can readthe The real humour, or at least the strong sense of the grotesque-, biography without receiving a distinct and pleasant impression of the shown in these little fancy pieces of Mr. Forbes, is the more remark- subject of the memoir. But the intrinsic difficulty- of the task has able because we fail.to find any clear trace of it in the biography. only been very partially surmounted. We are inclined to think that Exceptirg one or two touches of a different sort, the fun is rather of it was not a case for a regular chronicle such as is here attempted of a boisterouskind; and partakes more of animal spirits than of humour. the events of life from the cradle to the grave. A prefatory sketch; The following sentence concerning Sir Henry de la Beche's pony; or delineation of the author's- character, followed by a collection- of written when Mr. Forbes was on the Geological Snrvey, is an excep- some of his more 'popular essays—such, for instance; as that on tion - " Shellfish: their Ways and Works"—would have done a great deal " The governor (Sir Henry de Is Beebe) rides on his pony, a very quiet beast, more to engrave his image on the public than this somewhat vohimi- which, however, is believed by his master to have an irresistible propensity to noun account of his career. Howeier, we must, we suppose, remem- leap over logs Of wood when he sees them. It.is true that he has never done so ber that an eminent man's life is written partly for his awn set and yet; but then he always stops to look at them, Sir Henry says, with the above- partly for the outside public, and that what would do most for his mentioned intent. If I stop to gather a blackberry, the pony stops,. and. won't

fame with the latter is not always what would best satisfy the former. This, and occasionally one or two other touches in the quotations:

Dr. bearre, Wilson, who lived to complete only six chapters- of the from Forbes's letters, give the impression of a real sense of humour,, lessor Forbes's many- friends-, and portions of it will be read with deep

interest by the general public. college life, though Mr. Forbes's affection for it does seem to have Edward Forbes was born in the Isle of Man; in the year 1815, and take the institution of the Order of the Red Lions, which was esta- died: in 1854, before he had completed his fortieth year, just when he tablished at the meeting of the British Association in 1839„ when.. had attained the object of his long-cherished ambition in the chair of Mr. Forbes was twenty-four years old, and zealously kept up to the. Natural History at Edinburgh, and when his labours as a naturalist end of his life. Of this, his biographer gives us the following. were beginning to bear some real scientific fruits. He was born a- account :

naturalist in times when there was scarcely-any recognized means of gaining- a livelihood by devotion to pure Natural History, and- the " This meeting is memorable for the institution. of the 'Red. Lions,' of which. effort to glean one laboriously out of all the stray rewards which a young naturalists, disliking the irksomeness and expense of the ordinary, ad- scientific man may pick up, probably cost him his life. He had been jonrned to a small tavern adorned with the sign of the Red Lion. There they obliged, for-years before gaining, the chair of Natural History, to un- dined daily at small expense, on beef cooked in various fashions, moistened with. dertake very miscellaneous and laborious duties in order to maintain sundry potations of beer, and enlivened by joke and song—in contradistinction himself; and' when at last, after this struggling-life, he reached land, to the endless dishes and wines, and formality of the 'big wigs' Before the.. his constitution appeared to- be exhausted-, and be sank under the that the tenement could scarcely hold the guests, and it was resolved to continue very next attack of an hereditary disease from which. he had fre- them whereverafterwerds the Association shank! meet.' The sign of the tavern quently suffered. He was, to a certain. extent, essentially- a field furnished a name for the guests. They styled themselves Red Lions,' and, in naturalist; but he was not such a field naturalist as Mr. 'Waterton. proof of their leonine relationship, made a. point of always signifying their His- attraction to the subject did not consist in- the delight with approval. or dissent by growls and roars more or less audible, and, where greatee which lie watched- the habits and instincts of the animal creation. festations it is needless to say that- the voice of Edward Forbes rang out above- He does not seem to have had that vivid sympathy with the lower the rest, and his rampant coat-tail served as &model to the younger lions. He animals which inspires the veteran of Wakefield with a- passionate was wont, too, to delight the company by chanting in his own peculiar intonation; love for his birds. His mind was really cast. in a scientific mould, and songs composed for the occasion, the subjects being usually taken from some. his deepest interest, even in the plants and animals which he watched branch of science, and treated with that humour and grotesqueness in which be so. eagerly and- acutely, was the classifying interest. We read this- will be said in subsequent chapters, for the meetings were continued to the,tinwe in every page of the book before us. His great province in. the of Forbes's death, and are still kept up. Indeed, so pleasant were they found to animal world was that of the molluscs. He was fond of slugs and he, that those members who lived in London, formed themselves into a Red Lion snails, but not apparently for their own sake—for the sake of the Association, and met statedly, their crest being a: brilliant red lion with a long light they threw on the law of distribution of animal life both on pipe in one paw, and a glass of beer in the other, and the feeding hour of the. land:and sea. He was delighted to find a new species of snail on these but some of the extravagancies of youth. And yet they were zealously Arthur's Scat, and delighted to be taught to disseet it "raw." His joined in by men who have since stood forth as leaders in science, respected al interest in the creatures he studied was almost entirely the zoologist's over the world. Let no one think lightly of, them who has never mingled among and geologist's interest rather than the naturalist's. It was not the the students of nature, and who knows, therefore, nothing of the hearty fellow.- nature of the animals on their own account, but the laws which that feeling which, in spite of petty jealousies, unites these men into one great brother- nature suggested which fixed his attention. And yet it was for a laboratory, lecture-room, hill, valley, or shore, and repair from all corners of the naturalist that his powers fitted him, though the stimulus which land to compare notes in science, and to stimulate and strengthen each- other by Prompted him to exertion was strictly seientilic-rather than sympa_ the exchange of a frank and generous sympathy. Men who spend their years: thetic. From childhood he had a hawk's eye for new species of face to face with nature, would be formed of strange mould if their spirits eaugot *Memoir of Edward Forbes, F.R.S,lato Regius Professor of Natural History in the We dislike and deplore "Big-Wiggism" as heartily. as Mr. Geikie,, University of Edinburgh By George Wilson, M.D., F.R.S.E., and Archibald Geikie, F.R.S.E., E.G.S. Cambridge and London: Macmillan and Co. ; Edinburgh: Ed- but can exuberant gaiety take no. more really animating and delight- meneton and Douglas. PA form among grown up men- than imitation of the grawls,of Rona, B 00KS. :stones, flowers, insects, andfieli. Iffe lied a museum before he was ten years old, well arranged and classified, and was atways.filling his pockets with. weedS, insects, and minerals: He had long, slender fingers, which fitted him remarkably for all delicate: manual' opera- tions; and these, with his nnusuallyquiek eye, gave him sunk skill and Iriimitz' is an obvious and intrins'e difficulty in writing a thorongMy readiness as a draughtsman, that, for a time, his friend,s designed him good memoir of an eminent man whose triumphs have been achieved fbr an artist, and gave him a training in Art which proved.of the among the radiata and mollusea, whose enthusiasm has been expended greatest use to him in his: subsequent career. Durin$ the only the pursuit of starfishes and on the track or snails. The points course of lectures which he ever delivered in the university chair at of the biography which are of the greatest moment to the saientifib Edinburgh„ the students, we are told, were even more fascinated by reputation of the hero, and which are made vivid by his own fullest his drawings on the slate in coloured chalks than by the lectures with satisfaction, are necessarily anything- but luminous points to the which he accompanied them, " When he was demonstrating- the general reader: That air-breathing mollusca existed in the 'Purbeck structure of those almost translucent marine creatures or which lie beds is a discovery which; in the mind of 'a geologist, sheds a certain was the prime. expositor, the interest- of his original descriptions was halo of glory round the discoverer, but ordinary humankind perceives ahnost lost in the admiration of the beautifully gracefid forms which the excitement which the disclosure occasions with a blank and nnin- :seemed to arise,, as if by magic, from beneath his long and delicate. structed mind. Renee the biographer of such a man as the late.Mr. fingers, and a murmur of applause was not refrained from by his Forbes is at a great disadvantage as compared with title biographerof admiring audience—spectators, rather, they might then be called."- an-equally eminent politician or literary man; oreven of an original en- This faculty for rapid and skilful drawing; combined with a- very gineer like George Stephenson ; for he is quite unable to share hisown fine sense of the grotesque, lends one of the most amusing- elements pride in his hero's discoveries with nine-tenths oP his readers. It is to the present volume. Throughout life he was exceedingly fond' of like expressing joy to a sympathetic stranger in a foreign language ;- covering his books and papers with fanciful grotesque figures of his the general reader is aware that there is ground for immense eon- own invention, and his biographers have had the wit, and we may gratulation, but is wholly unable to adapt- himself to the details of say the humanity, to strew these, in the shape of vignettes, freely the occasion. Wherever the career of scientific discovery begins, ;through the present volume. They are fidl of quaint humour. We there the ordinary reader's interest begins to fail, so that what is ;wish it were in our power to transfer one-of them.too.ur own co, most interesting to mankind at large in a life like- that- of Mr: FOrbes aumns. Let our readers-, for instance, look at the. vignette on p. 335, is not that which is most remarkable and unique in his intellectual Dr. Mitntell having-proposed; at a meeting of the- Geological Seciety, achievements ; and that which is most remarkable- and- unique in-his that the bones of the dicynodon in the Society's collection should be

intellectual achievements is not. interesting -to mankind at large, "properly cleaned and dressed;" Forbes instantly drew on a sheet of

This Lea been areal difficulty to the authors of the ',resent memoir, paper before him a representation of the dieynodon, as his conception and we cannot say that they have entirely- overcome it. There, is a of how the creature would look when "properly cleaned and dressed!). sincere and at times- a very successful attempt to lend the book He has certainly managed to give an expression of tame Sunday- human interest, and Mr. Forbes was so full of genuine vivacity and clothes propriety to the animal inexpressibly laughable.

go on tin I have done."

interest by the general public. college life, though Mr. Forbes's affection for it does seem to have survived those salad days when he was green in judgment." But Edward Forbes was born in the Isle of Man; in the year 1815, and take the institution of the Order of the Red Lions, which was esta- died: in 1854, before he had completed his fortieth year, just when he tablished at the meeting of the British Association in 1839„ when.. had attained the object of his long-cherished ambition in the chair of Mr. Forbes was twenty-four years old, and zealously kept up to the. Natural History at Edinburgh, and when his labours as a naturalist end of his life. Of this, his biographer gives us the following. were beginning to bear some real scientific fruits. He was born a- account :

gaining- a livelihood by devotion to pure Natural History, and- the " This meeting is memorable for the institution. of the 'Red. Lions,' of which.

Forbes was the founder, and, for many years, the leading spirit. He and other

effort to glean one laboriously out of all the stray rewards which a young naturalists, disliking the irksomeness and expense of the ordinary, ad- scientific man may pick up, probably cost him his life. He had been jonrned to a small tavern adorned with the sign of the Red Lion. There they obliged, for-years before gaining, the chair of Natural History, to un- dined daily at small expense, on beef cooked in various fashions, moistened with. dertake very miscellaneous and laborious duties in order to maintain sundry potations of beer, and enlivened by joke and song—in contradistinction himself; and' when at last, after this struggling-life, he reached land, to the endless dishes and wines, and formality of the 'big wigs' Before the..

Conclusion of the meeting,' says Dr. Bennett, these dinners became so famous

his constitution appeared to- be exhausted-, and be sank under the that the tenement could scarcely hold the guests, and it was resolved to continue very next attack of an hereditary disease from which. he had fre- them whereverafterwerds the Association shank! meet.' The sign of the tavern quently suffered. He was, to a certain. extent, essentially- a field furnished a name for the guests. They styled themselves Red Lions,' and, in naturalist; but he was not such a field naturalist as Mr. 'Waterton. proof of their leonine relationship, made a. point of always signifying their His- attraction to the subject did not consist in- the delight with approval. or dissent by growls and roars more or less audible, and, where greatee

energy was needed, by a vigorous flourishing of their coat-tails. In these mani-

which lie watched- the habits and instincts of the animal creation. festations it is needless to say that- the voice of Edward Forbes rang out above- He does not seem to have had that vivid sympathy with the lower the rest, and his rampant coat-tail served as &model to the younger lions. He animals which inspires the veteran of Wakefield with a- passionate was wont, too, to delight the company by chanting in his own peculiar intonation; love for his birds. His mind was really cast. in a scientific mould, and songs composed for the occasion, the subjects being usually taken from some.

so much delighted. Of these and the 'Red Lions' who listened to them, more

so. eagerly and- acutely, was the classifying interest. We read this- will be said in subsequent chapters, for the meetings were continued to the,tinwe in every page of the book before us. His great province in. the of Forbes's death, and are still kept up. Indeed, so pleasant were they found to animal world was that of the molluscs. He was fond of slugs and he, that those members who lived in London, formed themselves into a Red Lion snails, but not apparently for their own sake—for the sake of the Association, and met statedly, their crest being a: brilliant red lion with a long carnivore, six o'clock precisely.' The reader may perchance smile, and deem, hood, and of the sometimes even-boyish exultation with which they quit museum, no measure, how small soever, of nature's freshness and exuberance." *Memoir of Edward Forbes, F.R.S,lato Regius Professor of Natural History in the We dislike and deplore "Big-Wiggism" as heartily. as Mr. Geikie,, and the flapping of coat-tails? We confess we cannot particularly envy this kind of joyousness, and should doubt whether it really con- tributed to the brightness of these meetings, but for the large amount of positive evidence. Perhaps, there is something in Mr. Geikie's assertion that it is more suited to the fresher and younger minds among naturalists, than it would be to cultivated persons of any other class. But if so, it certainly argues that the more subtle channels through which the gaiety and humour of intellectual men usually finds an outlet are not much developed in the scientific class, that there is a certain inarticulateness about them which obliges them to express their sense of enjoyment by frisking rather than by the medium of thought and lan. 11tere are many traces of this boyish friskiness about Mr. Mee; which was, however, associated in him, we suspect, with more genuine humour than his biography gives any trace of. Whatever merit there is in the verses which we find strewn here and there in this volume is certainly of this kind ; the sentimental lines, of which we have only a few specimens, being of that rather raw and bald description which are often to be observed in connexion with scientific intellects.

The impression of Mr. Forbes's character which this book leaves upon us is singularly pleasant ; a character bright, gay, and random, even to boyishness, thoroughly unselfish, conservative in politics, rather from a superficial dislike of innovation and of the cant of en- lightenment than from deeply-rooted prejudice ; an intellect singu- larly piercing and observant of natural affinities, and possessed of the greatest capacity for generalizing the results of observation ; a fancy full of audacity and quaintness; these were the main charac- teristics which we can still discern in the letters and recollections that remain. We regret that his biographers have omitted to tell us anything of his faith. A man so eminent in the scientific world, and of so religious and sincere a disposition, must have often dis- cussed with his friends the relation between science and religion, and it is a great omission to close this access to his true character. We are left to conclude from casual mention of a severe review of " Ves- tiges of Creation," and a chance allusion to the Platonism of his mind, that his philosophy was of a religious cast. Mr. Forbes's principal achievement in science is the development which he gave to the law of the geographical distribution of plants and animals over the face of the earth. His name will long be asso- ciated with the doctrine of specific centres of animal and vegetable life, with the law of the connexion between soil and climate and the animal and vegetable tribes appropriate to them, and with the law of their migrations. Especially lie discovered that there is some analogy between the range of life at different depths in the sea and the range of life at different heights on mountains. He noticed, for instance, that the British mollusca are found in the Mediterranean at a much greater depth than in the British seas, the accession of depth being, in fact, equivalent to an accession of northern latitude, just as in ascending a high tropical mountain we come on the vegetation, first of the temperate and then of the frigid zone. Mr. Forbes believed, indeed, that at a certain depth, which he fixed at three hundred fathoms, all life is extinguished, an hypothesis which the recent soundings for laying the Atlantic cable have refuted, as living crea- tures were found at two thousand, and even star-fishes at one thou- sand two hundred and sixty fathoms; but that he established the general law that the forms of life found in the various levels in de- scending towards the ocean floor are repeated without any descent. in depth in passing from the equator towards the poles, is generally accepted. This was perhaps the nearest approach to a general law established by Mr. Forbes. But his discoveries in detail, both in zoology and geology, and still more in the relation between the two sciences, were many and various; and had he lived to mature the scientific thoughts which crowded his brain, his name would probably have become as illustrious as that of our greatest living naturalists. As it is, it will long be remembered with respect, and, while any of his contemporaries still live, will be remembered also with affection and regret.