William S. Forbes

William Smith Forbes (10 February 1831 – 17 December 1905)[1] was an American physician who served as demonstrator of anatomy at Jefferson Medical College.

William Smith Forbes (born in Falmouth, Stafford Co., Va., February 10, 1831; he traveled north to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he attended Jefferson Medical College [M.D., 1852].

By then the Crimean War was raging, and after completing his residency he promptly sailed for Turkey to assist the British and to expand his medical knowledge.

He served as a volunteer surgeon at the English Military Hospital in Scutari, Constantinople, and among his colleagues was the famous nurse Florence Nightingale.

After the war, Forbes resumed his career as an eminent physician in Philadelphia, where he was demonstrator of anatomy at Jefferson Medical College and senior surgeon at Episcopal Hospital.

Public feelings ran so high on that occasion that a large mob assembled and threatened to lynch “the graveyard ghouls.” A subsequent police investigation led to charges that the miscreants now under arrest were actually working for none other than Dr. [George] William Smith Forbes.

At the same time, strict laws made it impossible for medical students in anatomy courses to obtain legal cadavers in the numbers required.