William Irvine FRSE (1743-1787) was an 18th-century British doctor and chemist who served as assistant to Joseph Black in many of his important experiments.
[citation needed] He entered Glasgow University in 1756 and studied medicine and chemistry under Joseph Black.
[citation needed] The focus of his work was industrial chemistry, with a special interest in glass production.
He caught a severe fever whilst visiting a Glasgow glassworks that he owned, and died as a result, on 9 July 1787.
In the Napoleonic Wars, Irvine served as an army physician in both Malta and Sicily.