18 Proceedings of the Royal Society 
Sir John acquired at the University of Edinburgh a taste for 
scientific pursuits. He was particularly attached to geology and 
meteorology, and he was one of the founders of the Meteorological 
Society of Scotland, which under his vice-presidency and the 
presidency of the Marquis of Tweeddale was doing valuable work 
for that important branch of scientific research. 
After an illness of some months’ duration, Sir John died 
in London on the 28th May 1866, in the sixty-second year of 
his age, and was succeeded in the baronetcy by his nephew, Mr 
William Forbes. He left an only daughter, who was married in 
1858 to the Hon, C. B. Trefusis, M.P., now Lord Clinton. 
The Rev. James Macfaelane was the son of the Rev. John 
Macfarlane, Bridgton, Glasgow, and was born at Waterbeck, 
Dumfriesshire, on the 27th April 1808. After receiving his 
elementary education at the High School of Glasgow, he entered 
the University there, and distinguished himself both as a classical 
scholar and as a student of Divinity. While at College he 
obtained the degree of Master of Arts, and subsequently that of 
Doctor of Divinity, and in 1865 he was appointed Moderator of the 
G-eneral Assembly of the Church of Scotland. He was licensed by 
the Presbytery of Glasgow in 1830, and ordained in 1831 as pastor 
of the East Church in Stirling. In 1832 he was translated to Sfc 
Bernard’s Church in Edinburgh, and in 1840 he was presented to the 
living of Duddingston, where he continued to discharge his duties 
as a parish minister faithfully and efficiently till his death, which 
took place on the 6th of February 1866, in the 58th year of his age. 
James Duncan, M.D., an eminent physician, was born at Perth 
on the 2d November 1810, and was the only son of Mr Duncan, of 
the well-known firm of Duncan, Flockhart, and Co. After receiving 
his early education at Perth, and at the High School of Edinburgh, 
he entered the University, and took the degree of M.D. in 1834. 
In the same year, he became a Fellow of the Royal College of Sur- 
geons in London, and in 1835 a Fellow of the Royal College of Sur- 
geons in Edinburgh. He spent about two years on the Continent, 
and prosecuted the study of anatomy and surgery at the medical 
schools of France, Germany, Austria, and Italy. On his return 
