William Saunders FRS FRSE (9 July 1743 – 4 June 1817) was a Scottish physician who was the first president of the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society.

From 1755 to 1759 he took a Science degree at Marischal College in Aberdeen (the usual age to attend University in the 18th century was 14).

He came to fame by contesting Sir George Baker's theory that the high levels of colic in Devonshire derived from over-consumption of cider, instead proving, by experiment that it came from the dissolving of lead during the cider-making process, and was lead-poisoning rather than alcohol-poisoning.

In 1790 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, to whom he delivered the Goulstonian Lecture of 1792 on diseases of the liver.

[2] He was a founding member of the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society and in 1805 was elected their first President.