Editing Francis Maitland Balfour (section)

== Death ==
Balfour never delivered a lecture in his new position. In the first term after his appointment he was prevented from working by an attack of [[typhoid fever]], and went to the [[Alps]] for his health. Balfour and the guide Johann Petrus were killed, probably on 19 July 1882, attempting the ascent of the [[Aiguille Blanche de Peuterey|Aiguille Blanche]], [[Mont Blanc]], at that time unscaled.<ref name="Gos">{{cite book|last=Gos|first=Charles|title=Alpine Tragedy|chapter=Mysterious Disasters I. The Deaths at the Aiguille Blanche|others=Trans. Malcolm Barnes|location=[[New York City|New York]]|publisher=[[Charles Scribner's Sons]]|year=1948|pages=125–134}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Friday |first=Adrian |title=Department of Zoology, Francis Maitland Balfour |date=15 March 2016 |url=https://www.zoo.cam.ac.uk/alumni/biographies-of-zoologists/francis-maitland-balfour |access-date=2024-02-03 |publisher=University of Cambridge}}</ref><ref name="Gos2">{{cite journal |last1=Gos |first1=Charles |date=1937 |title=A Winter's Day at Courmayeur |url=http://www.alpinejournal.org.uk/Contents/Contents_1938_files/AJ50%20228-238%20Gos%20Winter%20in%20Courmayeur.pdf |journal=The Alpine Journal |volume=49–50 |page=232 |access-date=3 February 2024}}</ref><ref name = AJobit>{{cite journal | title = In Memoriam – Francis Maitland Balfour  | journal =Alpine Journal| date= 1882 |  first = Walter | last =  Leaf |  issn= 0065-6569 |volume =#11  | pages=101-103 |   access-date =9 April 2025 |url = https://www.alpinejournal.org.uk/Contents/Contents_1882_files/AJ%201882%20Vol%2011%20101-107%20In%20Memoriam.pdf }}</ref>

Besides being a brilliant morphologist, Balfour was an accomplished naturalist. Charles Darwin referred to him as the "English [[Georges Cuvier|Cuvier]]".<ref name="Gos"/> [[Thomas Henry Huxley|Huxley]] thought he was "the only man who can carry out my work", and that the deaths of Balfour and [[William Kingdon Clifford|W. K. Clifford]] were "the greatest loss to science in our time".<ref>Huxley, Leonard (1900) ''The Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley''. 2 vols. 8vo, London: Macmillan.</ref> He was buried at [[Whittingehame]], East Lothian.