John Forbes (physician)

Sir John Forbes FRCP FRS (17 December 1787 – 13 November 1861) was a 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.

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).

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, Westminster.

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).