William Alexander Forbes

William Alexander Forbes
Portrait of Forbes
Born(1855-06-25)25 June 1855
Cheltenham, England
Died14 January 1883(1883-01-14) (aged 27)
Shonga, modern Nigeria
OccupationZoologist

William Alexander Forbes (25 June 1855 – 14 January 1883) was an English zoologist. He was the son of James Staats Forbes (1823–1904).

Forbes studied natural sciences at St John's College, Cambridge,[1] and later taught at Rhodes College (then known as Stewart College).[2] In 1879 he was appointed prosector to the Zoological Society of London on the death of the previous incumbent, Alfred Henry Garrod, who was Forbes's friend and whose literary executor Forbes became.[3] Forbes lectured on comparative anatomy at Charing Cross Hospital Medical School. As an anatomist, he wrote valuable papers on the muscular structure and voice organs of birds.

On 8 February 1878, Forbes was elected Secretary of the Cambridge Natural History Society. He also edited the book compiling the late Alfred Henry Garrod's scientific papers; the book was published in 1881 along with a memoir of Garrod written by Forbes.

In 1880 Forbes visited the forests of Pernambuco, Brazil, and published an account of his trip in The Ibis in 1881. In 1882 he travelled to west Africa to study the native fauna, starting from the mouth of the Niger delta (an area where British merchants had set up large scales of trade, it would become part of the Niger Coast Protectorate or the Oil Rivers Protectorate in about two year). He was taken ill shortly after Christmas and died in Shonga.[4]

Forbes is commemorated in the names of the Forbes's blackbird Anumara forbesi, white-collared kite Leptodon forbesi and the Forbes's plover Charadrius forbesi.

Further reading

Footnotes

  1. ^ "Forbes, William Alexander (FRBS876WA)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  2. ^ Rhode College Digital Archives (1860). "Professor William A. Forbes". Archived from the original on 7 February 2019. Retrieved 7 February 2019.
  3. ^ "Forbes, William Alexander" . Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
  4. ^ Forbes, William Alexander (1855-1883), zoologist by G. T. Bettany, rev. Yolanda Foote in Dictionary of National Biography online (retrieved 31 January 2021)
Flag of United KingdomScientist icon Stub icon

This article about a British zoologist is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by adding missing information.

Content Disclaimer

Informasi ini disarikan dari Wikipedia dan disajikan kembali untuk tujuan edukasi. Konten tersedia di bawah lisensi CC BY-SA 3.0. Kami tidak bertanggung jawab atas ketidakakuratan data yang bersumber dari kontribusi publik tersebut.

  1. The information displayed on this website is sourced in part or in whole from Wikipedia and has been adapted for the purpose of restating it. We strive to provide accurate and relevant information, however:
  2. There is no guarantee of absolute accuracy. Wikipedia is an open, collaborative project that can be edited by anyone, so information is subject to change.
  3. It is not intended to constitute professional advice. The content displayed is for informational and educational purposes only. For important decisions (e.g., medical, legal, or financial), please consult a professional.
  4. Content copyright. Wikipedia is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License (CC BY-SA). This means that content may be reused with appropriate attribution and shared under a similar license.
  5. Responsible use. Any risk arising from the use of information from this website is entirely the responsibility of the user.