Rutherford was born at Ancrum Craig Farm near Ancrum in Roxburghshire, the son of Elizabeth (née Bunyan) Thomas Rutherford, a farmer and landowner. He was educated at Jedburgh Grammar School then studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh, gaining his doctorate (MD) in 1863.[2]
In 1869 Rutherford became assistant professor of physiology at King's College, London. In 1871 he was appointed professor of physiology at the Royal Institution. In 1874 he returned to the University of Edinburgh to succeed Bennett as professor of physiology.[3] In 1875 he was elected a member of the Harveian Society of Edinburgh[5][6] and in 1878 was elected a member of the Aesculapian Club.[7]
Rutherford lectured at the University of Edinburgh when Arthur Conan Doyle studied medicine there. Like his fictional character Sherlock Holmes, who was based on a real person, Conan Doyle's Professor Challenger was based in part on Rutherford.[8] From 1881 his laboratory assistant was Sutherland Simpson.
He died 21 February 1899 at 14 Douglas Crescent, Edinburgh.[9] He was not married and had no children, so he was buried with his parents in Ancrum parish churchyard.[10]
On the morbid appearances met with in the brains of thirty insane persons, 1869
Influence of the vagus upon the vascular system, 1869
Introductory lecture to the course of physiology in King's College, London, 1869, 1869
An introduction to the study of medicine : a lecture delivered at the opening of the medical session of 1871–72, in King's College, London, 1871
The present aspects of physiology; an introductory lecture, 1874
Outlines of practical histology : being the notes of the Histological Section of the Class of Practical Physiology held in the University of Edinburgh, 1875
The sense of hearing: a lecture, 1886
Syllabus of lectures on physiology, 1887
A General account of histological methods, 1887
On the conditions that influence the attainment of the physiological ideal : introductory lecture, 14 October 1890, 1890
The tercentenary of the compound microscope; an inaugural address delivered 7 November 1890, to the Scottish Microscopical Society, 1891
On the method of studying a natural science such as physiology : an introductory lecture, delivered 9 October 1894, 1894
^Finkelstein, Gabriel (2013). Emil du Bois-Reymond: Neuroscience, Self, and Society in Nineteenth-Century Germany. Cambridge; London: The MIT Press. p. 173. ISBN978-0262019507.
^In Memories and Adventures Doyle writes 'Most vividly of all, however, there stands out in my memory the squat figure of Professor Rutherford with his Assyrian beard, his prodigious voice, his enormous chest and his singular manner. He fascinated and awed us. I have endeavoured to reproduce some of his peculiarities in the fictitious character of Professor Challenger. He would sometimes start his lecture before he reached the classroom, so that we would hear a booming voice saying: "There are valves in the veins," or some other information, when the desk was still empty. He was, I fear, a rather ruthless vivisector, and though I have always recognized that a minimum of painless vivisection is necessary, and far more justifiable than the eating of meat as a food, I am glad that the law was made more stringent so as to restrain such men as he. "Ach, these Jarman Frags!" he would exclaim in his curious accent, as he tore some poor amphibian to pieces.'
Richards, Stewart (May 1986). "Conan Doyle's 'Challenger' Unchampioned: William Rutherford, F.R.S. (1839–99), and the Origins of Practical Physiology in Britain". Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London. 40 (2). The Royal Society of London: 193–217. doi:10.1098/rsnr.1986.0011. JSTOR531688. PMID11620895. S2CID20786841.
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