John Forbes (physician)
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Sir John Forbes FRCP FRS (17 December 1787 – 13 November 1861) was a distinguished Scottish physician, famous for his translation of the classic French medical text De L'Auscultation Mediate[1] by René Laennec, the inventor of the stethoscope. He was physician to Queen Victoria 1841–61.
Life
Forbes was born on 17 December 1787 at Cuttlebrae, near Cullen, in the parish of Rathven,
To enlist as a surgeon in the
Forbes moved to Penzance in September 1817. Between 1817 and 1822 he laid the foundations for his knowledge of the newly invented stethoscope of René Laennec (1781–1826), about the French physician's teaching on stethoscopy: De L'Auscultation Médiate (1819). Forbes translated this into English in four editions between 1821 and 1834. On 19 May 1820 Forbes married Eliza Mary Burgh (1787–1851) at Great Torrington, Devon. He contributed papers to the Royal Geological Society of Cornwall, of which he was secretary, and he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1829. Forbes and his wife moved to Chichester in 1822, where their only child, Alexander Clark Forbes, was born in 1824.
In 1836, Forbes and John Conolly started a new publication: the British and Foreign Medical Review, or, A Quarterly Journal of Practical Medicine,[2] for which they shared the editorship from 1836 to 1839. The Review was read widely in Europe and America, and helped to promote modern methods of treatment and enhancing the reputation of British medicine.
On 15 October 1840, John Forbes resigned as senior physician at Chichester Infirmary and moved to London, taking up practice at 12 Old Burlington Street,
In 1852 he received the honorary degree of
A final publication 'Of Nature and Art on the Cure of Disease' based on his favourite theme of the 'vis medicatrix naturae' appeared in 1857, (second edition 1858). This emphasised that the practice of medicine should combine science with Art and set out his case for the healing powers of Nature. Sir John's book was well received both at home and abroad. After May 1860, when he resigned from the Comitia of the RCP Lond., his health declined to the point that he used a wheelchair. He retired to live at the home of his son, Alexander Clark Forbes (1824–1901) in Whitchurch-on-Thames, where he died on 13 November 1861.
In his Memorandums made in Ireland in the autumn of 1852, (1853) Forbes supported religious tolerance in Ireland.
Publications
- Forbes J. (1821). A treatise on diseases of the chest in which they are described according to their anatomical characters, and there diagnosis established on a new principle by means of acoustic instruments. London: T & G Underwood.
- Forbes J. (1824). Original Cases with dissections and observations illustrating the use of the stethoscope and percussion in the diagnosis of diseases of the chest. London: T & G Underwood.
- Forbes J (1835). A manual of select medical bibliography. London: Sherwood, Gilbert and Piper.
- Forbes J. (1834–1836) Sketch of the Medical Topography of the Hundred of Penwith, comprising the district of Landsend in Transactions of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association, volume 2, pp. 32–139 and volume 4, pp. 152–261.
- Forbes J. (1846). Ueber Sonnambulissmus, Hellsehen und thierschen Magnetismus, bearbeitet von A. Hummel, Wien.
- Forbes J. (1846). Homoeopathy, allopathy and “young physic”. British and Foreign Medical Review, 225–265.
- Forbes J. (1857). Of nature and art in the cure of disease. London: John Churchill.
- Forbes J., Cyclopaedia of Practical Medicine. London: Sherwood, Gilbert and Piper.
Further reading
- Laënnec RTH (1819). De L'Auscultation Médiate; ou, Traité du diagnostic des maladies des poumons et du Coeur, fondé sur ce moyen d’exploration. 2 vols., Paris: Brosson et Chaudé.
- R. A. L. Agnew, The Life of Sir John Forbes (2009) ISBN 978-0-9535670-7-2
- R. A. L. Agnew, Lightfoot Winds (2009) ISBN 978-1-904470-05-2
References
- ^ William Alexander Greenhill (1885–1900). . Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
- ^ "British and foreign medical review : or quarterly journal of practical medicine and surgery /". catalogue.nli.ie. 11 June 1836.
External links
- Media related to John Forbes (physician) at Wikimedia Commons
- A detailed biography of Forbes at the James Lind Library