William Cullen was born in Hamilton, Lanarkshire, on 15 April 1710. He studied at Glasgow University and in 1729 went to London and became a surgeon on a merchant ship sailing to the West Indies. On returning to London he assisted in an apothecary in Henrietta Street and continued with his studies. In the early 1730s, Cullen returned to Scotland to provide for his family after the death of his father and eldest brother. After two years of practicing in Auchinlee near Hamilton, he began studying again this time at the Edinburgh Medical School under Alexander Monro primus (1697-1767) between the years 1734 and 1736. In 1736 he began practicing as a surgeon in Hamilton and was chief magistrate in the town too, between 1739 and 1740. In 1740, Cullen obtained the degree of M.D. at Glasgow and from 1744 he moved to the city and became occupied with founding a medical school there, and lectured on medicine and other subjects. One of his students was Joseph Black (1728-1799). In 1751, Cullen became Professor of Medicine at Glasgow University, and then in 1755 he was elected joint and then sole Professor of Chemistry at Edinburgh University. In 1757 he began to give clinical lectures at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary with great success, and in 1766 he was elected Professor of the Theory (or Institutes) of Physic. From 1768 he and his rival, Dr. John Gregory (1724-1773), lectured in the Theory and the Practice of Physic in alternate years, but on the death of Gregory in 1773 Cullen succeeded him and lectured both, and became the mainstay of the Medical School for many years.
In the 1740s, Cullen made some discoveries on the evolution of heat in chemical combination and the cooling of solutions which were published in 1755, Essay on the cold produced by evaporating fluids . Other discoveries helped Black to reach his conclusions in relation to latent heat. Cullen took an active part in preparing a new edition of the Edinburgh Pharmacopoeia (1774), and other principal works included Synopsis nosologiae methodicae (1769), First lines of the practice of physic (1776-1784), and The substance of nine lectures on vegetation and agriculture delivered privately in 1768 (1796)
William Cullen resigned his Chair on 30 December 1789, and he died on 5 February 1790. He was buried at Kirknewton near his estate of Ormiston Hill.
From the guide to the Papers of William Cullen M.D. (1710-1790), 18th century, (Edinburgh University Library)
