Daniel Rutherford

{{Infobox scientist

| name = Daniel Rutherford

| image = Daniel Rutherford (1749-1819).jpg

| image_size =

| caption =

| birth_date = {{birth date|df=y|1749|11|03}}

| birth_place = Edinburgh, Scotland

| death_date = {{death date and age|df=y|1819|11|15|1749|11|3}}{{cite book|last1=Waterston|first1=Charles D.|last2=Macmillan Shearer|first2=A.|title=Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002: Biographical Index|url=http://www.rse.org.uk/fellowship/fells_indexp2.pdf|access-date=8 February 2011|volume=II|date=July 2006|publisher=The Royal Society of Edinburgh|location=Edinburgh|isbn=978-0-902198-84-5|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061004113303/http://www.rse.org.uk/fellowship/fells_indexp2.pdf|archive-date=4 October 2006}}

| death_place = Edinburgh, Scotland

| residence =

| citizenship =

| field = Chemistry

| work_institutions = Physician, Edinburgh (1775–86)
Professor of medicine and botany, University of Edinburgh
Keeper, Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh (1786–1819)
King's Botanist in Scotland (1786-)
Physician, Edinburgh Royal Infirmary (1791)

| alma_mater = University of Edinburgh

| doctoral_advisor =

| doctoral_students =

| known_for = isolation of nitrogen

| author_abbrev_bot = Rutherf.

| author_abbrev_zoo =

| prizes =

| religion =

| footnotes =

| signature =

| alt = Engraved portrait of Rutherford

}}

Daniel Rutherford {{Post-nominals|post-noms=FRSE FRCPE FLS FSA(Scot)}} (3 November 1749 – 15 November 1819) was a British physician, chemist and botanist who is known for the isolation of nitrogen in 1772.

Life

File:The 4th Earl of Selkirk's house on Hyndford's Close in Edinburgh.png

Rutherford was born on 3 November 1749, the son of Anne Mackay and Professor John Rutherford (1695–1779). He began college at the age of 16 at Mundell's School on the West Bow close to his family home, and then studied medicine under William Cullen and Joseph Black at the University of Edinburgh,{{Cite web|url=https://www.rcpe.ac.uk/heritage/art/rutherford-daniel-1749-1819|title=Rutherford, Daniel (1749 - 1819)|date=14 January 2015|access-date=9 May 2018|archive-date=3 November 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221103185032/https://www.rcpe.ac.uk/heritage/art/rutherford-daniel-1749-1819|url-status=dead}} graduating with a doctorate (MD) in 1772. From 1775 to 1786 he practiced as a physician in Edinburgh.

On 12 April 1782 Rutherford was one of the founding members of the Harveian Society of Edinburgh and served as President in 1787.{{Cite book|url=https://wellcomecollection.org/works/ww4e59xv|title= A Record of the Edinburgh Harveian Society|last=Watson Wemyss|first=Herbert Lindesay|publisher=T&A Constable, Edinburgh|year=1933|language=en}} In 1783 he was a joint founder of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.{{cite book|title=Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002|date=July 2006|publisher=The Royal Society of Edinburgh|isbn=0-902-198-84-X|url=https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp2.pdf|page=812|access-date=9 May 2018|archive-date=4 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304074135/https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp2.pdf|url-status=dead}} In 1784 he was elected a member of the Aesculapian Club.{{Cite book|title=Minute Books of the Aesculapian Club|url=http://archives.rcpe.ac.uk/calmView/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=DEP%2fAEC%2f1&pos=2|location= Library of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh}} At this time he lived at Hyndford Close on the Royal MileEdinburgh Post Office Directory 1784 a house he (or his father) had purchased from Dunbar Douglas, 4th Earl of Selkirk

He was a professor of botany at the University of Edinburgh and the 5th Regius Keeper of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh from 1786 to 1819. He was president of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh from 1796 to 1798.{{cite web|url=https://www.rcpe.ac.uk/library-archives/sibbald-library-blog/college-fellows-curing-scurvy-and-discovering-nitrogen|title=College Fellows: curing scurvy and discovering nitrogen|date=14 November 2014|publisher= Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh|access-date= 4 November 2015}}

His pupils included Thomas Brown of Lanfine and Waterhaughs.{{Cite web |url=http://www.hmag.gla.ac.uk/john/huntmin/Lanfine.htm |title=Thomas Brown of Lanfine and Waterhaughs |access-date=14 May 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130514042814/http://www.hmag.gla.ac.uk/john/huntmin/Lanfine.htm |archive-date=14 May 2013 |url-status=dead |df=dmy-all }}

Around 1805 he moved from Hyndfords Close to a newly built townhouse at 20 Picardy Place at the top of Leith Walk, where he lived for the rest of his life.Edinburgh Post Office Directory 1818

He died suddenly in Edinburgh on 15 November 1819. His sister died two days later and the second sister (Scott's mother) only seven days after the latter.Grant's Old and New Edinburgh vol.2 p.274

Family

He was the uncle of novelist Sir Walter Scott.{{Cite web|url=https://www.rcpe.ac.uk/heritage/college-history/daniel-rutherford|title=Daniel Rutherford|website=Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh|date=9 February 2017 }}

In 1786 he married Harriet Mitchelson of Middleton.

Isolation of nitrogen

Rutherford discovered nitrogen by the isolation of the particle in 1772.See:

Daniel Rutherford (1772) [https://books.google.com/books?id=JxUUAAAAQAAJ "Dissertatio Inauguralis de ere fix, at mephitic"] (Inaugural dissertation on the air [called] fixed or mephitic), M.D. Dissertation, University of Edinburgh, Scotland.
English translation: Leonard Dobbin (1935) "Daniel Rutherford's inaugural dissertation", Journal of Chemical Education, 12 (8): 370–375.
See also: James R. Marshall and Virginia L. Marshall (Spring 2015) "Rediscovery of the Elements: Daniel Rutherford, nitrogen, and the demise of phlogiston", The Hexagon (of Alpha Chi Sigma), 106 (1) : 4–8. Available on-line at: [https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc824866/m2/1/high_res_d/spring-2015-4-8.pdf University of North Texas].{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yS_m3PrVbpgC&pg=PR15|page=15|title=Elements of chemistry, in a new systematic order: containing all the modern discoveries|author=Lavoisier, Antoine Laurent|author-link=Antoine Lavoisier|publisher=Courier Dover Publications|year=1965|isbn=0-486-64624-6}} When Joseph Black was studying the properties of carbon dioxide, he found that a candle would not burn in it. Black turned this problem over to his student at the time, Rutherford. Rutherford kept a mouse in a space with a confined quantity of air until it died. Then, he burned a candle in the remaining air until it went out. Afterwards, he burned phosphorus in that, until it would not burn. Then the air was passed through a carbon dioxide absorbing solution. The remaining component of the air did not support combustion, and a mouse could not live in it.

Rutherford called the gas (which we now know would have consisted primarily of nitrogen) "noxious air" or "phlogisticated air". Rutherford reported the experiment in 1772. He and Black were convinced of the validity of the phlogiston theory, so they explained their results in terms of it.

Botanical reference

References

External links

{{DNB Cite|wstitle=Rutherford, Daniel}}
[http://www.londonmet.ac.uk/genesis/search/$-search-results.cfm?CCODE=2476 Biographical note at “Lectures and Papers of Professor Daniel Rutherford (1749–1819), and Diary of Mrs Harriet Rutherford”] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120207075410/http://www.londonmet.ac.uk/genesis/search/$-search-results.cfm?CCODE=2476 |date=7 February 2012 }}

Category:Scottish antiquarians

Category:1749 births

Category:1819 deaths

Category:Discoverers of chemical elements

Category:Founder fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh

Category:Fellows of the Linnean Society of London

Category:Industrial gases

Category:Academics of the University of Edinburgh

Category:Members of the Philosophical Society of Edinburgh

Category:Presidents of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh

Category:Scientists from Edinburgh

Category:People educated at James Mundell's School