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Wellcome Library

Cullen, William (1710-1790)


IDENTITY STATEMENT

Reference code(s): GB 0120 MSS.1918-1971, 5487, 6036, 6155 and 8536

Held at: Wellcome Library

Title: Cullen, William (1710-1790)

Date(s): [1760-1925]

Level of description: Collection (fonds)

Extent: 57 volumes, 1 bundle

Name of creator(s): Cullen | William | 1710-1790 | chemist and physician

CONTEXT

Administrative/Biographical history:

Born, Hamilton, Lanarkshire, 1710; educated, Glasgow University, and became pupil of a physician; surgeon to a merchant ship, 1729; apothecary's assistant, London; practised at Auchinlee, near Hamilton, 1731-1732; student, Edinburgh Medical School, 1734-1736; practised as a surgeon in Hamilton, 1736-1744; Chief Magistrate of Hamilton, 1739-1740; graduated MD, Glasgow, 1740; practised in Glasgow, 1744-; founded a medical school, lecturing on medicine and several other subjects; made some discoveries on the evolution of heat in chemical combinations and the cooling of solutions; Professor of Medicine, Glasgow University, 1751; joint Professor of Chemistry, Edinburgh University; began to give clinical lectures in the infirmary, 1757; delivered a course of lectures on materia medica, continuing his chemistry course, 1760-1761; Professor of the 'Institutes' or theory of physic, Edinburgh University, 1766-1773; lectured in alternate years on the theory and the practice of medicine with John Gregory; Professor of the Practice of Physic, Edinburgh University, 1773-1789; President, Edinburgh College of Physicians, 1773-1775; helped prepare the new edition of the 'Edinburgh Pharmacopeia', 1774; foreign associate of the Royal Society of Medicine at Paris, 1776; Fellow, Royal Society of London, 1777; died, 1790.

CONTENT

Scope and content/abstract:

Primarily notes from William Cullen's lectures taken by students at Edinburgh University; also some annotated copies of texts by Cullen, [1760-1925].

ACCESS AND USE

Language/scripts of material: English

System of arrangement:

Conditions governing access:

The papers are available subject to the usual conditions of access to Archives and Manuscripts material, after the completion of a Reader's Undertaking.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Photocopies/photographs/microfilm are supplied for private research only at the Archivist's discretion. Please note that material may be unsuitable for copying on conservation grounds, and that photographs cannot be photocopied in any circumstances. Readers are restricted to 100 photocopies in twelve months. Researchers who wish to publish material must seek copyright permission from the copyright owner.

Finding aids:

Described in: S.A.J. Moorat, Catalogue of Western Manuscripts on Medicine and Science in the Wellcome Historical Medical Library (London: Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine, 1962-1973), Richard Palmer, Catalogue of Western Manuscripts in the Wellcome Library for the History and Understanding of Medicine: Western Manuscripts 5120-6244 (London: The Wellcome Library for the History and Understanding of Medicine, 1999), and subsequent typescript supplements to these catalogues by Richard Aspin, Christopher Hilton, Keith Moore and Richard Palmer.

Detailed catalogue

ARCHIVAL INFORMATION

Accruals:

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

MSS.1922 and 1927-1968 from the Blagden Collection, which was presented to the Library in June 1954. MSS.1970-1971 presented by E. Gordon Power in 1953. MS.6155 was part of the manuscript collection of the Medical Society of London, which was purchased by the Wellcome Library in 1984. Other items purchased 1912, 1930, 1933, 1953 and 1987. MS.8536 received in August 1947, provenance not recorded.

ALLIED MATERIALS

Related material:

In the Wellcome Library: Notes of lectures by Cullen are found amidst the John Gregory material held as MSS.2612-2627. Other notes by Charles Blagden are found in the Gregory papers and those relating to Joseph Black (MSS.1219-1227); Blagden's own papers are held as MSS.1234-1252.

DESCRIPTION NOTES

Archivist's note: Copied from the Wellcome Library catalogue by Sarah Drewery.

Rules or conventions: In compliance with ISAD (G): General International Standard Archival Description - 2nd Edition (1999); UNESCO Thesaurus, December 2001; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions: Feb 2009


INDEX ENTRIES
Subjects
Clinical medicine | Medical sciences
Hospitals | Health services
Lectures (teaching method) | Teaching methods
Medical education | Higher science education
Ophthalmology | Medical sciences
Physicians | Medical personnel | Medical profession | Medical sciences
Rheumatic diseases | Diseases | Pathology
Chemistry
Medical institutions
Personnel

Personal names
Cullen | William | 1710-1790 | chemist and physician

Corporate names
Edinburgh University

Places
Edinburgh | Midlothian | Scotland | UK | Western Europe | Europe
London | England | UK | Western Europe | Europe