NATURE 



313 



THURSDAY, AUGUST 3, 18 



FRANCIS MAITLAND BALFOUR 



DEATH has been striking heavy blows at Cambridge. 

 Only a little while ago we were mourning the loss of 

 Maxwell, taken from us, as it seemed, in his prime, when 

 we were fondly hoping that for many years yet to come, 

 the bounds of science would continue to be widened by 

 the labours of his powerful mind : and now Balfour has 

 been snatched from us in the very flush of youth, with his 

 work only just begun, for what he had achieved, great as 

 it was, seemed to his friends only an earnest of that which 

 was yet to come. 



The editor of Nature has asked me to write a few 

 words about my lost friend ; and I obey, feeling it my 

 duty not to refuse, painful as the task is. 



Francis Maitland Balfour was born in 1S51 or 1S52 (I 

 cannot at this moment find out which), and was therefore, 

 at the time of his death, only about thirty years of age. 

 After spending some years at Harrow, where he gained 

 the reputation of being a bright, clever boy, but raised 

 no adequate expectations of what he was about to become, 

 he entered at Trinity College, Cambridge, in October, 

 1S70. He had the good fortune to become at once the 

 private pupil of Mr. Marlborough Pryor, who had just been 

 elected the first Natural Science Fellow at Trinity, and 

 though Balfour had already turned towards natural 

 science, and indeed had gone pretty fully into the geo- 

 logy of his native county (Haddingtonshire), I cannot but 

 think that the direction of his studies, and so of his 

 future career, was largely determined by Pnor's admir- 

 able influence. I myself was called to Trinity College as 

 Prselector at the same time that Balfour entered, and I 

 believe he, in his second term, attended the lectures 

 which I was then giving ; but I did not distinctly make 

 his acquaintance till March, 1871, when I took part in an 

 examination at Trinity College, which resulted in Balfour 

 being elected Natural Science Scholar. From that time 

 onward we became more and more intimate, and I took 

 an increasing share in the direction of his studies. 



Discovering very early how great his powers of mind 

 were, and learning that his private resources were such 

 as to enable him to disregard the pecuniary advantages of 

 academic success, I did, what seemed to some at the 

 time, a rash thing : I counselled him to neglect the ordi- 

 nary routine preparation for his degree, and to apply 

 himself at once to original work. His mind from the first 

 was drawn towards morphology rather than towards physi- 

 ology ; and, as I was then attempting to embody in a 

 small volume some of the lectures on embryology which I 

 had given in London and Cambridge, I proposed to him 

 that he should associate himself with me in the work, and 

 undertake at once the investigation of some of the many 

 embryological problems which lay to hand. He did so, 

 and the results of these, his early labours, are partly con- 

 tained in the papers " On the Layers of the Blastoderm," 

 "On the Primitive Streak," and " On the Development 

 of the Blood-vessels,'' published in the Quarterly Journal 

 of Microscopical Science, July, 1873, and are partly scat- 

 tered and hidden in the little work " On the Development 

 of the Chick," which bears his name and mine. The 

 larger achievements of his succeeding \ears have of 

 Vol. xxvi.— No. 665 



course overshadowed these works of his 'prentice hand ; 

 but while he was engaged on them, that power of acute 

 observation, rapid grasp of the meaning of things, and 

 strict faithfulness of statement, which all have since 

 recognised in him, became evident to myself at least. 



In December, 1S73, after breaking off his original work 

 for two or three months in order to prepare himself more 

 definitely for the examination, he obtained his B.A. 

 degree in the so-called Natural Sciences Tripos. Happily 

 and wisely just then the University of Cambridge had 

 secured two " tables " at the newly established zoological 

 station at Naples, and in the early winter, Balfour, in 

 company with Mr. A. G. Dew-Smith, started oft' to work 

 there. His knowledge and insight had already led him 

 to expect that much might be learnt from the investiga- 

 tion of the early history of the Elasmobranch Fishes, and 

 that accordingly was the problem which he set before 

 himself, and on which he worked during that and 

 succeeding years. 



The results of those labours, embodied in his Mono- 

 graph on the Development of the Elasmobranch Fishes, 

 published as a volume in 1878, but as separate papers in 

 the Journal of Anatomy ami Physiology from 1876 to 

 187S, and in the Philosophical Transactions for 1876, 

 are known to all biologists. This is not the time to 

 point out in detail their value, but this at least may be 

 said that from the very beginning to the very end of 

 the investigation almost every step serves to throw light 

 on important biological problems. Every chapter from 

 the first, which deals with the ovarian ovum, to the last, 

 which treats of the urogenital organs, contains a record 

 of inquiries which have left their stamp on morphological 

 doctrines. When I remember what embryology was. 

 when in 1S71 Balfour learnt his first lessons in it 

 from my imperfect lips, and reflect what it is now, the 

 progress of ten years appears little short of marvellous : 

 and how much of that progress is due to the hand and 

 brain which a slip on the treacherous mountain path has 

 snatched from our midst ! 



In October, 1S74, an election to a Natural Science 

 Fellowship, at Trinity College, took place. Happily the 

 governing body of the College had previously determined 

 to make a new departure, and to allow original work, as 

 well as the results of an examination, to weigh in the 

 decision of the electors. I believe I am betraying no 

 secret in saying that had the election been determined by 

 an examination alone, Balfour would never have been 

 Fellow of Trinity, and Cambridge would probably have 

 lost one of its brightest ornaments. Balfour was one of 

 those able men who never " do themselves justice in an 

 examination-room," and his performance in answering 

 the set questions was inferior to that of his competitor. 

 But the winter at Naples had already borne fruit ; and 

 Prof. Huxley, who kindly assisted in the examination, 

 gave such testimony as to the value and promise of so 

 much of the work on the Elasmobranchs as had already 

 been done, that no hesitation as to choosing Balfour was 

 possible. 



This success encouraged him to even increase his 

 activity. He continued to work either at Naples or in 

 Cambridge, and in 1875, after delivering a short course 

 on embryology for me, he began (upon the invitation 

 of Prof. Alfred Newton and with the support of Mr. J. 



