John Rutherford (medic)

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John Rutherford (born August 1, 1695 - March 6, 1779 in Edinburgh ) was a professor of medicine at the University of Edinburgh and one of the pioneers of clinical teaching, in which the students are taught in the hospital on the patient instead of in the university classroom. He is the father of the scientist Daniel Rutherford and the grandfather of the writer Walter Scott .

Live and act

He was the son of John Rutherford, Sr. Minister of Yarrow, Selkirkshire . He completed classical training at a school in Selkirk and subsequently began studying mathematics and natural philosophy at the University of Edinburgh . After that he found a job as an apprentice to a surgeon in that town. He later followed him to London and stayed with him until 1716. In London he attended various hospitals and also lectures by James Douglas , an anatomist, surgeon and obstetrician who was teaching in London at the time. He then studied at Leyden University , under Herman Boerhaave , and also in Paris and Reims .

In Reims he completed his medical studies in July 1719, where he received his doctorate in medicine (MD) in 1719 .

In 1720 he returned to Great Britain . He settled in Edinburgh in 1721, and began a compound and drug preparation laboratory with Andrew Sinclair (1726–1757), Andrew Plummer and John Innes (1726–1755) . The group of these doctors also taught the basics of chemistry and later, on the advice of Herman Boerhaave, they also lectured on other scientific subjects. Each member of this group of doctors became professors at the University of Edinburgh.

John Rutherford was one of Scotland's foremost medical professionals, teaching at the University of Edinburgh, which in the first half of the 18th century developed into one of the best medical schools in Europe. He is considered to be one of the pioneers of clinical teaching in medicine, in which the students are not taught in the lecture hall, but take part in the examinations of the patients in the hospital. This training method, also known as the Leiden system , goes back to Herman Boerhaave from Leiden . It was practiced on a very small scale in Edinburgh before John Rutherford, but it was only by him that it was applied and popularized on a large scale. John Rutherford began giving clinical classes to his students regularly in the royal hospital, built in 1741, from 1748 onwards.

In 1726 he was appointed professor of medicine at the University of Edinburgh, where he was to teach until his retirement in 1766. He was married twice, first to Jean Swinton and then to Anne MacKay. His daughter Anne Rutherford (1739-1819) emerged from his marriage to Jean (or Joan) Swinton and his son Daniel Rutherford (1749-1819) from his marriage to Anne MacKay .

Rutherford was buried on March 10, 1779 in Greyfriars Kirkyard in Edinburgh.

Works (selection)

  • Clinical lectures read in the Royal Infirmary at Edinburgh in the year 1749.
  • Clinical lectures. Edinburgh (1751)
  • Clinical lectures and cases. Edinburgh (1762)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Helen M. Dingwall: A History of Scottish Medicine: Themes and Influences . Edinburgh University Press 2003, ISBN 0-7486-0865-6 , pp. 92, 118-119 ( excerpt from Google book search)
  2. ↑ a b c D'Arcy Power: Rutherford, John (1695-1779) . In: Dictionary of National Biography , 1885-1900, Volume 50
  3. ^ A b Donald Guthrie: The Influence of the Leyden School upon Scottish Medicine . Med Hist. 1959 April; 3 (2): 108–122, PMC 1034462 (free full text)
  4. ^ Nicholas Jenkins et al: John Rutherford in Stanford University's Family Ghosts genealogy database (accessed March 3, 2012)
personal data
SURNAME Rutherford, John
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Scottish medic and father of Daniel Rutherford, and grandfather of Walter Scott
DATE OF BIRTH August 1, 1695
DATE OF DEATH March 6, 1779
Place of death Edinburgh