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Memoir of the late John Hutton Balfour, M.A., M.D., 

 LL.D., F.R.8., F.R.S.E., etc.; Professor of Medicine omd 

 Botany in the University of Edinburgh; Queen's Botan- 

 ist jor Scotland ; Regius Keeper of the Royal Botanic 

 Gardens, Edinburgh, etc., etc., etc. By William Craig, 

 M.D., F.R.S.E., F.R.C.S. Ed.; Lecturer on Materia Medica, 

 Edinburgh School of Medicine, etc., etc. 



By the death of Emeritus Professor Balfour, on the 11th 

 February, 1884, the Club lost one of its most distinguished 

 members. 



John Hutton Balfour was born in Edinburgh, in 1808. His 

 father was a well-known and much respected citizen, a retired 

 army surgeon. He received his early education at the High 

 School in his native city, then under the superintendence of the 

 famous Dr Carson. From the High School he went to the 

 University of Edinburgh, where he was a distinguished student, 

 and ended his arts curriculum b}" graduating as Master of Arts. 

 He early acquired distinction in classics, and throughout life 

 was known to his friends as an excellent classical scholar. There 

 can be no doubt that the thorough training he received in early 

 life at the High School, and subsequently in the art classes, 

 and the University, did much to qualify him for the distinguished 

 position he was afterwards destined to fill. 



During this period he spent one session at the University of 

 St Andrews, where he had the privilege of listening to the pre- 

 lections of the famous Dr Chalmers. It was the wish of his 

 father that he should enter the Church, and with this view he 

 attended several of the Divinity classes in the University of 

 Edinburgh. The knowledge which he thus acquired was turned 

 to good purpose afterwards, in his ministering to the spiritual 

 wants of many, especially to his numerous pupils. 



Young Balfour, however, preferred to follow the profession of 

 his father as a surgeon, and so devoted his attention to the study 

 of medicine. After a distinguished career as a student of 

 medicine, he graduated as M.D. in the University of Edinburgh 

 in 1831. In the same year he received the Licence of the Royal 

 College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, and two years later was 

 elected as Fellow of the same Royal College. For some years 



