John Rutherford (physician)

John Rutherford ( * August 1, 1695, † 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 in the hospital a patient be taught in a university lecture hall instead. He is the father of the scientist Daniel Rutherford and the grandfather of the writer Walter Scott.

Life and work

He was the son of John Rutherford sen. Minister of Yarrow, Selkirkshire. He went through a classical education at a school of Selkirk, and began in the wake a study of mathematics and natural philosophy at Edinburgh University. After that he found a job as an apprentice to a surgeon in this city. He later followed him to London and stayed with him until 1716. In London he visited various hospitals and also lectures by James Douglas an anatomist, surgeon and obstetrician who taught at that time in London. He then studied at the University of Leyden, Herman Boerhaave, also in Paris and Reims.

In Reims, he graduated in July 1719 from his medical studies, where he received the Doctor of Medicine (MD) 1719.

In 1720 he returned to Britain. He settled in Edinburgh in 1721 down, and began with Andrew Sinclair ( 1726-1757 ), Andrew Plummer and John Innes ( 1726-1755 ), a laboratory for the preparation of compounds and drugs a. This group of doctors also taught the basics of chemistry and later on the advice of Herman Boerhaave out they refereed through other scientific topics. Each member of this group of physicians was professor in the University of Edinburgh.

John Rutherford was one of the leading physicians of Scotland and taught at the University of Edinburgh, which developed in the first half of the 18th century to one of the best medical schools in Europe. He gilts as one of the pioneers of clinical teaching in medicine, in this, the students are not taught in the auditorium but take part in the examination of the patients in the hospital part. This is also referred to as the Leiden system training method goes back to Herman Boerhaave of Leiden. It was before John Rutherford practiced in a very small extent in Edinburgh, but applied only by this large-scale and popularized. John Rutherford gave his students from 1748 regular clinical in the 1741 built Royal Hospital classroom.

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

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

Works (selection)

• Clinical lectures. Edinburgh (1751 )
• Clinical lectures and cases. Edinburgh ( 1762)