James Hutton was the son of William Hutton, a merchant living in Edinburgh, and was born in that city on the 3rd of June, 1726. His father, a man highly respected for his good sense and integrity, and who had held the important office of city treasurer, died whilst the boy was young. The mother was a woman of considerable ability, and she determined that her child should have a good education. He went, consequently, to the High School, and subsequently was entered at the University at the early age of fourteen. James was a thorough student, and loved work, and his tastes were directed rather to natural science than to classics and the higher mathematics. He studied mathematics under Maclaurin, and used to say in after years that although he enjoyed Professor Stevenson’s teaching of logic, still he thought more of him because a hint that was given in a lecture led him to take a passionate interest in chemistry. The fact that gold is dissolved in aqua regia (a mixture of nitric and hydrochloric acids), and that two acids, which can each of them dissolve any of the baser metals, must unite their strength before they can attack the most precious, was mentioned by the professor, in illustration of some general doctrine. Hutton was much impressed with this fact, and was led to study it further, and he got all the books on the subject. This led to his love of chemistry, which never forsook him, and which really decided the course of his career. But Hutton was destined for a profession, and his mother did not intend him to occupy himself solely with science. Consequently he was articled to a writer to the signet, with a view of becoming a lawyer. He had hard work to do, and plenty of it; it was mere routine work, that of a clerk, and there was a possibility that he would forget his scientific pleasures. His desire for knowledge persisted, in spite of his monotonous work, and occasionally he endeavoured to teach his fellow clerks a little, and he was found amusing himself and them with chemical experiments, when he should have been copying papers or studying the forms of legal proceedings. His master soon saw that the young man’s mind was not that which would suit a lawyer, so, with much kindness and good sense, he released his young friend from his obligations. Young Hutton at once began to study medicine, as that science which was the most closely allied to chemistry. He attended lectures, and studied well from 1744 to 1747. Then, as the teaching at Edinburgh was not sufficient in all the parts of medical studies, he went, as was usual, to Paris, where he studied chemistry and anatomy with great ardour. He was there for nearly two years, and then went to Leyden, in Holland, where he took his degree in September, 1749. On his return to London at the end of that year, he began to think seriously about settling in the world. Edinburgh afforded no flattering prospect for his establishment as a physician. The business there was in