64
physic, instead of being, as it generally is, a hand-
maid to that art. Quitting the university about the
year 1650, he removed to London, where his medi-
cal studies were chiefly directed by the celebrated
Harvey, by Sir Theodore Mayerne the distinguished
physician of King James I., and various other emi-
nent practitioners. He afterwards travelled to Blois
in France, and remained there for some time, to see
the botanic garden of the Duke of Orleans, which
was then the best in Europe, and was kept by his
countryman Dr. Morison. Here he contracted a
warm friendship for that great botanist, which con-
tinued unimpaired while they lived. From Blois he
went to Paris, where, for a long time, he prosecuted
his medical studies with great ardour. He completed
his education at the university of Caen, from which
he received the degrees of bachelor and doctor of
physic, on the 20th of September, 1661.
Returning to London soon afterwards, Dr. Balfour
was introduced to Charles II., who named him as
the most proper person to attend the young Earl of
Rochester on his continental travels. After an
absence of four years, he returned with his pupil in
1667. During their tour he endeavoured, and at
that time not without some appearance of success, to
recall that abandoned young nobleman to the paths
of virtue, and to inspire him with the love of learn-
ing. Rochester himself often acknowledged, and to
Bishop Burnet in particular, only three days before
his death, how much he was bound to love and
honour Dr. Balfour, to whom, next to his parents,
he thought he owed more than to all the world.
On returning to his native country, Balfour settled
at St. Andrews as a physician. "He brought with
him," says Dr Walker, in his Essays on Natural
History, "the best library, especially in medicine
and natural history, that had till then appeared in
Scotland; and not only these, but a perfect know-
ledge of the languages in which they were written;
likewise many unpublished manuscripts of learned
men, a series of antique medals, modern medallions,
and pictures and busts, to form the painter and the
architect; the remarkable arms, vestments, and orna-
ments of foreign countries; numerous mathematical,
philosophical, and surgical instruments, which he
not only possessed, but used; with operations in
surgery till then unknown in this country; a com-
plete cabinet with all the simples of the materia
medica, and new compositions in pharmacy; and
large collections of the fossils, plants, and animals,
not only of the foreign countries he traversed, but of
the most distant parts of the world."
Dr. Balfour's merit was too conspicuous to suffer
him to remain long at St. Andrews. In the year
1670 he removed to Edinburgh, where he imme-
diately came into great practice. Here, among other
improvements, he prosecuted the manufacture of
paper, and was the means of introducing that valu-
able art into the country—though for many years it
remained in a state of complete or nearly complete
dormancy; the people deriving stationery articles of
all kinds from Holland. Adjoining to his house
he had a small botanic garden, which he furnished
by the seeds he received from his foreign correspon-
dents; and in this garden he raised many plants
which were then first introduced into Scotland.
One of his fellow-labourers in this department was
Patrick Murray of Livingston, whom he had initiated
into the study of natural history. This young gentle-
man, who enjoyed an ample fortune, formed at his
seat in the country a botanic garden, containing 1000
species of plants, which at that period was a very
large collection. He traversed the whole of France
in quest of the plants of that country; and on his
way to Italy he prematurely died of a fever. Soon
after his death Dr. Balfour transferred Murray's col-
lection from Livingston to Edinburgh; and with it,
joined to his own, he had the merit of laying the
foundation of the public botanic garden. The
necessary expense of this new institution was at first
defrayed by Dr. Balfour, Sir Robert Sibbald, and
the Faculty of Advocates. But at length the city
allotted a piece of ground near Trinity College church
for a public garden, and out of the revenues of the
university allowed a certain sum for its support.
As the first keeper of this garden, Dr. Balfour selected
Mr. James Sutherland; who, in 1684, published a
work entitled Hortus Edinburgensis. (See SUTHER-
LAND. ) The new institution soon became consider-
able: plants and seeds were sent from Morison at
Oxford, Watts at London, Marchant at Paris, Her-
man at Leyden, and Spottiswood at Tangier. From
the last were received many African plants, which
flourished in this country.
Such efforts as these, by a native Scotsman, oc-
curring at a time when the attention of the country
seems to have been almost exclusively devoted to
contending systems of church-government, are truly
grateful to contemplate. It is only to be lamented,
that the spirit which presided over them was pre-
mature in its appearance; it found no genial field to
act upon, and it was soon forgotten in the prevailing
distraction of the public mind. Sir Andrew Balfour
was the morning-star of science in Scotland, but he
might almost be said to have set before the approach
of day.
He was created a baronet by Charles II., which
seems to indicate that, like most men of literary and
scientific character in that age, he maintained a senti-
ment of loyalty to the existing dynasty and govern-
ment, which was fast decaying from the nation.
His interest with the ministry, and with the munici-
pality of Edinburgh, seems to have always been con-
siderable, and was uniformly exerted for the public
good and for the encouragement of merit.
Upon his settlement in Edinburgh, he had found
the medical art taught in a very loose and irregular
manner. In order to place it on a more respectable
footing, he planned, with Sir Robert Sibbald, the
Royal College of Physicians; and of that respectable
society his brethren elected him the first president.
When the college undertook the publication of a
Pharmacopoeia, the whole arrangement of the materia
medica was committed to his particular care. For
such a task he was eminently qualified by his skill
in natural history. This performance made its ap-
pearance in 1685; and, in the opinion of Dr. Cullen,
it is superior to any pharmacopeia of that era.
Not long before his decease, his desire to promote
the science of medicine in his native country, joined
to the universal humanity of his disposition, led him
to project the foundation of an hospital in Edinburgh.
The institution was at first narrow and confined, but
it survived to be expanded into full shape, as the
Royal Infirmary, under the care of George Drum-
mond. Sir Andrew died in 1694, in the sixty-fourth
year of his age, after a severe conflict with the gout
and other painful disorders; which afforded him an
opportunity of displaying, upon the approach of death,
those virtues and that equanimity which had dis-
tinguished him during his life. His person, like his
mind and manners, was elegant. He was possessed
of a handsome figure, with a pleasing and expres-
sive countenance; of a graceful elocution; and, by
his natural disposition, as well as his long intercourse
with the higher ranks in society, of a most courteous
and polite demeanour. A print of him was executed
at Paris; but no copy is known to exist.