CULLEN, WILLIAM, was born in Lanarkshire, in the year 1712. His parents being in humble circumstances, he commenced tho study and even the practice of physic under certain disadvantages; and after serving an apprenticeship to a surgeon-apothecary in Glasgow, be became surgeon to a merchant vessel, trading between London and the West Indies. He soon returned to his own district, and practised in the country parish of Shotts, a region proverbial, even in Scotland, for bleakness and poverty. But having been introduced to the Duke of Argyll, who was on a visit to a gentleman in the neighbourhood, ho acquired his good opinion; and was led soon after to remove to Hamilton. There he was admitted a councillor in 1737, and was chief magistrate in 1739 and 1740; and he fanned a partnership with a young man destined to attain equal celebrity, William Hunter. The chief object of this connection was to enable them to improve their medical education ; and accordingly they agreed that one of them should alternately be allowed to study during the winter at Borne medical school, while the other should carry on the business in the country for the profit of both parties. Cullen took the first turn, and passed his winter at Edinburgh. Hunter, when his turn arrived, went to London, where he soon recommended himself to Dr. Douglas, a lecturer on anatomy and midwifery, who engaged him as an assistant. Thus ensued a premature dissolution of partnership; for Cullen threw no obstacles in the way of his friend's advancement, but readily cancelled the articles. They maintained over after a cordial com munication by letters, though it does not appear that they again met.
Tho Duke of Hamilton having been suddenly taken ill at his palace, sent for Cullen, who not only benefited him by his skill, but attracted him by his conversation. It appears to have been the interest of this nobleman which procured him the situation of lecturer of chemistry in the University of Glasgow ; and having previously taken his Doctor's degree, he began his first course in 1746. His medical practice daily increased; and when a vacancy occurred in 1751, be was appointed by the king to the professorship of medicine. It was now that he began to show the rare talent of giving science an attractive form, diffusing clearness over abstract subjects, and making the most difficult points accessible to ordinary capacities.
In 1756 he was called to Edinburgh to fill the chair of chemistry, vacated by the death of Dr. Plummer. While holding this office, he for several years delivered clinical lectures at the royal infirmary. Alston, the professor of materia medico, died in 1763, and was suc ceeded by Cullen, who, though now in the middle of his chemical course, began his new subject a few days after his nomination. So great was his popularity, that while only eight or ten pupils had entered under Alston, he attracted above a hundred. On the death of Dr. Whytt, in 1766, Cullen took the chair of theoretical medicine, resigning that of chemistry to his pupil Black. The chair of practical medicine next became vacant by the death of Dr. Rutherford.
Gregory started as a rival candidate to Cullen; but by an amicable compromise it was agreed that the chairs of theoretical and practical medicine should be shared between them, each lecturing on both subjects; but when Gregory was suddenly cut off in the prime of life, Cullen occupied the practical professorship alone, till within a few months of his death. As a lecturer, Dr. Cullen, like all who have excelled in that difficult branch of the profession, carried with him not merely the regard but the enthusiasm of his pupils. Alibert bears testimony to the impression he made upon the foreign students who resorted to his lectures, and who preserved indelible recollections of his power to convince and to awaken. He lectured from short notes and this nearly extemporaneous delivery no doubt contributed to that warmth and variety of style which tradition ascribes to his lectures, but which are certainly not the characteristics of his published works. Cullen died on the 5th of February 1790. The following is a list of Dr. Cullen's works : 1. 'First Lines of the Practice of Physic,' Edio., 1777, 4 vols., 8vo. This work has been frequently reprinted, and has been translated into French, German, Italian, and Latin. Dr. Cullen's system, as delivered in this book and in his lectures, superseded that of Boerbaave, of which the humeral pathology forms a part. Cullen's division of diseases into four classes is so simple, and yet Bo ingenious that it is still adopted by some English lecturers. The first class contains the Pyrexim, or febrile diseases; the second, the Neuroses, or nervous diseases; the third, the Cachexim, or diseases of an ill habit of body ; tfie fourth, the Locales, or local diseases. To give an example of each, pleurisy belongs to the first class, epilepsy to the second, scurvy to the third, and tumours to the fourth. [Suomi, Jour, M.D.] 2. 'Insti tutions of Medicine,' Edin., 1777, 12mo. This is a treatise on physiology, which was translated into French, German, and Latin. 3. 'An Essay on the Cold produced by evaporating Fluids, and of some other means of producing Cold,' Edin., 1777. This is annexed to Dr. Black's Eperiments upon Magnesia alba, &e. 4. 'A Letter to Lord Cathcart, president of the Board of Police iu Scotland, concerning the Recovery of Persons drowned and seemingly dead,' Edin., 1789, 8vo. 5. 'Synopsis Noaologiin Methodicm,' Edin., 1785, 2 vols., 8vo. Tho first volume contains the nosologies of Sauvages, Llimmus, Vogel, Sager, and Macbride; the second contains Cullen's own, which is by far the best. This work was translated into German, with some additions, Leipzig, 1786, 2 vols., 8vo. 6. ' A Treatise of tho Materia Medico,' Ediu., 1789, 2 vols., 4to. Translated into French and Italian, and twice into German; one of tho German translations is by Hahnemann, Leipzig, 1790, 2 vols., 8vo. Cullen's clinical lectures were published in 1797, Lend., 8vo. Dr. Young ('Med. Liter.'), after the title of the book, puts the word surreptitious, Bo that it was probably printed from the note-book of some student.