John Rutherford (physician)

He taught at the University of Edinburgh, which was one of the world's leading medical schools in the 18th century.

However, its early deployment was somewhat limited since the university only had a small ward and hence only a few patients available for clinical teaching.

In 1741 the new Royal Infirmary with 228 beds was opened, and in 1748 John Rutherford started to provide clinical teaching to all his students.

These lessons proved to be extremely popular and soon became a compulsory part of the medical education.

Two manuscript copies of early clinical lectures given by Rutherford on the wards of the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary survive as part of the Manchester Medical Manuscripts Collection held by special collections at the University of Manchester.