Born at Halifax, Yorkshire, and was educated at the Heath School and the University of Edinburgh. After qualifying he began to practise in Edinburgh, was Surgeon to the Royal Dispensary, and was mainly instrumental in founding there the Dispensary for Diseases of the Skin, of which he was also Surgeon. His health failing after two years, he passed two winters at Florence, and eventually in 1828 settled in London, where he continued in active practice till 1868, when advancing infirmities compelled him to retire. At the time of his death he was a Fellow of the Medical Society of Edinburgh, a Fellow of the Royal Medico-Chirurgical Societies of London and Edinburgh, and Surgeon to the Church of England Assurance Society. He was succeeded in practice by his son, Alfred Baynard Duffin, MD Edin (qv), and died at his son's residence, 18 Devonshire Street, Portland Place, where he had himself practised, on October 17th, 1874. The cause of death was pneumonia, following renal disease. He was among the earliest introducers of the operation for strabismus, and pointed out the advantages of a small conjunctival wound, of regulating the amount of muscle divided, and of operating on both eyes in cases of alternate squint. In 1847 he published his work *On Deformities of the Spine*, drawing attention to the utility of graduated muscular exercises in the correction of lateral deformities. In 1850 he operated successfully, and by a new method, on a case of ovarian tumour, and in a paper published in the *Medico-Chirurgical Transactions* (xxxiv, 1) he insisted upon the great value of the following modifications in the operative procedure then in vogue: (1) The relatively small incision in the median line of the abdomen; (2) Sewing the pedicle of the tumour into the mouth of the wound so as to keep all the cut surfaces extraperitoneal, thus avoiding the enclosing of ligatures and acquiring greater control over subsequent haemorrhage; (3) Narcotizing the patient with opium and keeping her well under its influence for many days after the operation; (4) Keeping a relatively hot moist atmosphere about the patient. Publications: "De Hydrocephalo," his Edinburgh Thesis, 1821. *The Influence of Physical Education in Producing and Confirming in Females Deformity of the Spine*, 8vo, London, 1829. *An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of Lateral Deformity of the Spine*, 8vo, London, 1834; 2nd ed., with lithographs, 1835. These lithographs throw a flood of light on the physique of our grandmothers, and on their education and training. *On Deformities of the Spine*, 1847. *Practical Remarks on the New Operation for the Cure of Strabismus, or Squinting,* 8vo, 10 plates, London, 1840.