William Rutherford

Abstract

THIS distinguished physiologist was a son of the border. He was born at Ancrum in Roxburghshire in 1839, and he died in Edinburgh on February 21, 1899. About thirty-six years of his busy life, from the date of his graduation in 1863, were spent in the pursuit of physiological science. After studying at Berlin, Vienna, and Paris, he became assistant to the late John Hughes Bennett, who then filled the chair of Physiology in Edinburgh. For many years Bennett had taught histology and the use of the microscope to voluntary classes, and among his pupils may be mentioned the well-known, tames of Redfern, Carter, and Dobie, who have each made their mark in this branch of science. It was not, however, until the early sixties that practical physiology, as now understood, was developed in the Edinburgh school. Bennett's great contemporary, John Goodsir, the anatomist, brought under his notice the new experimental school of Germany, and in a short time the ingenious instruments of Helmholtz, Du Bois-Reymond, and Ludwig made their appearance in Edinburgh, probably before they were known in any other school in Great Britain. The first assistant who dealt with such matters, and who added a short course of instruction in physiological chemistry, was Dr. Argyll Robertson, the eminent ophthalmologist. After him came Rutherford, who threw himself into the work with characteristic ardour, and who amplified the course from year to year. In 1869, he became Professor of Physiology in King's College, London; in 1871, Professor of Physiology in the Royal Institution of Great Britain; and, in 1874, he returned to Edinburgh to occupy the chair of his old master. For twenty-five years he laboured unremittingly as a teacher, and he was able, as few men could have done, to cope with the enormous classes which for several years characterised the Edinburgh school. During the winter session, the systematic class frequently numbered five hundred students, while about two hundred and fifty obtained instruction in practical physiology, partly in the winter but mostly in the summer session.