Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 1.djvu/134

 complete dormancy; the people deriving stationary 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 correspondents; 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 gentleman, who enjoyed an ample fortune, formed at his seat in the country a botanic garden, containing one thousand 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 his collection 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 .] The new institution soon became considerable: plants and seeds were sent from Morison at Oxford, Watts at London, Marchant at Paris, Herman 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, occurring 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 in the contemplation. It is only to be lamented, that the spirit which presided over them, was premature 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 sentiment of loyalty to the existing dynasty and government, which was fast decaying from the public mind at large. His interest with the ministry, and with the municipality of Edinburgh, seems to have always been considerable, 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 Pharmacopæia, 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 appearance in 1685; and, in the opinion of Dr Cullen, it is superior to any Pharmacopæia 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 Drummond. 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