Born on November 1st, 1797, in Greengate, Salford, Manchester, and was the descendant of an old Northumbrian family. One of his ancestors was at Christ’s College, Cambridge, with John Milton, whose constant friend he remained. John Boutflower’s father was John Boutflower, surgeon, of Salford, and his brother, born in 1796, was Henry Crewe Boutflower, Hulsean Essayist and a well-known divine. John Boutflower was educated at the Manchester Grammar School, and then entered as a student at St George’s Hospital, London, afterwards completing his medical studies in Paris, where he was a pupil of Dupuytren and Boyer. In London he had also attended the lectures of Abernethy and Sir Astley Cooper. In 1820 he was House Surgeon to the Manchester Infirmary, and was for some years Lecturer on Surgery at the Chatham Street School. He was twice a candidate for the office of Surgeon of the Infirmary, but was defeated owing to adverse local influences, and refused to put up a third time. Most of' his work lay among the poor, in connection more particularly with the Salford Dispensary, which, largely owing to his fostering care, latterly developed into a large hospital. He served faithfully and ungrudgingly for forty-four years as Surgeon to the Dispensary, and, on his retirement in 1870, was presented with £200 in plate, while his portrait by Measham was placed in the board room of the institution. After his retirement Boutflower devoted himself to the wants of the poor. At the time of his death he was Consulting Surgeon to the Salford and Pendleton Royal Hospital and Dispensary, and Senior Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons. He died at his residence, 118 Great Ducie Street, Strange-ways, Manchester, on March 20th, 1889, being then in his ninety-second year.