John Rutherford (1 August 1695 – 6 March 1779,

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

) was a Scottish physician and professor at the

University of Edinburgh Medical School The University of Edinburgh Medical School (also known as Edinburgh Medical School) is the medical school of the University of Edinburgh in Scotland and the United Kingdom and part of the College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine. It was esta ...

. He is the father of the scientist

Daniel Rutherford Daniel Rutherford (3 November 1749 – 15 December 1819) was a Scottish physician, chemist and botanist who is known for the isolation of nitrogen in 1772. Life Rutherford was born on 3 November 1749, the son of Anne Mackay and Professor John ...

and the grandfather of the writer

Walter Scott Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet, playwright and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European and Scottish literature, notably the novels ''Ivanhoe'', ''Rob Roy (n ...

. Rutherford was one of the eminent physicians of his time. He taught at the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...

, which was one of the world's leading medical schools in the 18th century. He was one of the founding professors of the

and was appointed the Professor of Practice of Medicine from 1726 to 1765. Rutherford was a Fellow of the

Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh The Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh (RCPE) is a medical royal college in Scotland. It is one of three organisations that sets the specialty training standards for physicians in the United Kingdom. It was established by Royal charter ...

. He is probably best known for pioneering clinical teaching, which meant that students were learning in the hospital with live patients rather than receiving classroom teaching. This method was first introduced by

Herman Boerhaave Herman Boerhaave (, 31 December 1668 – 23 September 1738Underwood, E. Ashworth. "Boerhaave After Three Hundred Years." ''The British Medical Journal'' 4, no. 5634 (1968): 820–25. https://www.jstor.org/stable/20395297.) was a Dutch botanist, ...

University of Leiden Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; nl, Universiteit Leiden) is a public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. The university was founded as a Protestant university in 1575 by William, Prince of Orange, as a reward to the city of Le ...

and soon after used at the University of Edinburgh as well. However, its early deployment was somewhat limited since the university only had a small ward and hence only a few patients available for clinical teaching. In 1741 the new Royal Infirmary with 228 beds was opened, and in 1748 John Rutherford started to provide clinical teaching to all his students. These lessons proved to be extremely popular and soon became a compulsory part of the medical education. Two manuscript copies of early clinical lectures given by Rutherford on the wards of the

Edinburgh Royal Infirmary The Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, or RIE, often (but incorrectly) known as the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, or ERI, was established in 1729 and is the oldest voluntary hospital in Scotland. The new buildings of 1879 were claimed to be the largest v ...

survive as part of the Manchester Medical Manuscripts Collection held by special collections at the

University of Manchester , mottoeng = Knowledge, Wisdom, Humanity , established = 2004 – University of Manchester Predecessor institutions: 1956 – UMIST (as university college; university 1994) 1904 – Victoria University of Manchester 1880 – Victoria Univer ...

.MMM/17/3
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Notes

References

''John Rutherford''
in the genealogy database ''Family Ghosts'' of the

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

*Helen M. Dingwall: ''A History of Scottish Medicine: Themes and Influences''. Edinburgh University Press 2003,
restricted online version (Google Books)
*M.H. Kaufman
''500 years of the College of Surgeons and 300 years of the Chair of Anatomy in Edinburgh''
''The Surgeon''. June 2005 Vol 3 No 3. 18th-century Scottish medical doctors Academics of the University of Edinburgh People from Selkirk, Scottish Borders Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Leiden University alumni Reims University (1548–1793) alumni Scottish pharmacologists Burials at Greyfriars Kirkyard 1695 births 1779 deaths {{Scotland-med-bio-stub