27 Facts About William Cullen

William Cullen was a Scottish physician, chemist and agriculturalist, and professor at the Edinburgh Medical School.

William Cullen was President of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow, President of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh and First Physician to the King in Scotland.

William Cullen assisted in obtaining a royal charter for the Philosophical Society of Edinburgh, resulting in the formation of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1783.

William Cullen was a beloved teacher, and many of his students became influential figures.

William Cullen kept in contact with many of his students, including Benjamin Rush, a central figure in the founding of the United States of America; John Morgan, who founded the first medical school in the American colonies, the Medical School at the College of Philadelphia; William Withering, the discoverer of digitalis; Sir Gilbert Blane, medical reformer of the Royal Navy; and John Coakley Lettsom, the philanthropist and founder of the Medical Society of London.

William Cullen published a number of medical textbooks, mostly for the use of his students, though they were popular in Europe and the American colonies.

William Cullen's best known work was First Lines of the Practice of Physic, which was published in a series of editions between 1777 and 1784, and inventing the basis of modern refrigeration.

William Cullen's father William was a lawyer retained by the Duke of Hamilton as factor, and his mother was Elizabeth Roberton of Whistlebury.

William Cullen began his medical training as apprentice to John Paisley, a Glasgow apothecary surgeon, then spent 1729 as surgeon on a merchant vessel trading between London and the Antilles in the West Indies.

William Cullen continued his study of the natural sciences, especially of chemistry.

From 1737 to 1740 William Cullen Hunter was his resident pupil, and at one time they proposed to enter into partnership.

In 1740 William Cullen was awarded the degree of MD from Glasgow University.

William Cullen became ordinary medical attendant to James Douglas, 5th Duke of Hamilton, his family, and his livestock.

In 1747, William Cullen was awarded Britain's first independent lectureship in Chemistry and was elected President of the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow.

In 1748 while in Glasgow, William Cullen invented the basis for modern refrigeration, although is not credited with a usable application.

William Cullen used a pump to create a partial vacuum over a container of diethyl ether, which then boiled, absorbing heat from the surroundings.

William Cullen was then appointed sole professor of the practice of physic, and he continued in this office until a few months before his death.

In Edinburgh, William Cullen lived off South Grays Close on the Royal Mile close to the old Scottish mint.

William Cullen had a country residence at Ormiston Hill in Kirknewton, West Lothian.

In 1783 William Cullen was a co-founder of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

William Cullen taught many students who would go on to influential careers in British science.

William Cullen was one of the more successful physicians because of his shrewdness in handling difficult patients.

Many of William Cullen's consultations were done through written letters sent by patients from Scottish cities and towns.

William Cullen managed his consultations with great efficiency; he usually read the letters early in the morning and his secretary-amanuensis would record and mail back his responses.

Patients who would write letters to William Cullen were usually in the upper and middle class.

William Cullen was a lecturer for more than forty years.

William Cullen was father to the judge Robert Cullen, Lord Cullen and to the physician Henry Cullen.