Editing Daniel Rutherford

{{Short description|Scottish physician, chemist and botanist}}
{{for|the Scottish mathematician|Daniel Edwin Rutherford}}
{{EngvarB|date=February 2018}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2018}}
{{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}}<ref name="Waterston">{{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}}</ref>
| death_place       = [[Edinburgh]], Scotland
| residence         = 
| citizenship       = 
| field             = [[Chemistry]]
| work_institutions = Physician, Edinburgh (1775–86)<br />Professor of medicine and botany, University of Edinburgh<br />Keeper, [[Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh]] (1786–1819)<br />[[King's Botanist in Scotland]] (1786-)<br />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=[[Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh|FRSE]] [[Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh|FRCPE]] [[Fellow of the Linnean Society of London|FLS]] [[Society of Antiquaries of Scotland|FSA(Scot)]]}} (3 November 1749 – 15 November 1819) was a Scottish 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|thumb|The 4th Earl of Selkirk's house on Hyndford's Close in Edinburgh, later owned by Daniel Rutherford]]
Rutherford was born on 3 November 1749, the son of Anne Mackay and [[John Rutherford (physician)|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]],<ref>{{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}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{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}}</ref> In 1783 he was a joint founder of the [[Royal Society of Edinburgh]].<ref>{{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}}</ref>  In 1784 he was elected a member of the [[Aesculapian Club]].<ref>{{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}}</ref> At this time he lived at Hyndford Close on the [[Royal Mile]]<ref>Edinburgh Post Office Directory 1784</ref> 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.<ref>{{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}}</ref>

His pupils included [[Thomas Brown of Lanfine and Waterhaughs]].<ref>{{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 }}</ref>

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.<ref>Edinburgh Post Office Directory 1818</ref>

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.<ref>Grant's Old and New Edinburgh vol.2 p.274</ref>

==Family==
He was the uncle of novelist Sir [[Walter Scott]].<ref>{{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 }}</ref>

In 1786 he married Harriet Mitchelson of Middleton.

== Isolation of nitrogen ==
{{more citations needed|section|date=December 2021}}
Rutherford discovered nitrogen by the isolation of the particle in 1772.<ref>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].</ref><ref>{{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}}</ref> 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 (chemistry)|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==

{{botanist|Rutherf.|Rutherford}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

==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 }}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rutherford, Daniel}}
[[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]]
[[Category:Alumni of the University of Edinburgh]]
[[Category:18th-century Scottish botanists]]
[[Category:19th-century Scottish botanists]]
[[Category:18th-century British chemists]]
[[Category:19th-century Scottish chemists]]
[[Category:18th-century Scottish medical doctors]]
[[Category:19th-century Scottish medical doctors]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh]]
[[Category:Medical doctors from Edinburgh]]
[[Category:Office bearers of the Harveian Society of Edinburgh]]
[[Category:Members of the Harveian Society of Edinburgh]]