William C. CRUIKSHANK

Eminent Surgeon, Writer
The Anatomy of the absorbent vessels of the Human Body
Born 1745, Edinburgh, Scotland
Died 1800

William Cumberland Cruikshank, was a Scottish chemist and anatomist. He was the author of The Anatomy of the Absorbing Vessels of the Human Body, which was first published in 1786, and laid the foundation of modern knowledge of lymphatics.

He went to London in 1771 and became assistant to William Hunter in his anatomical work, and in 1797 he was the first to demonstrate that a particular crystallizable substance exists in the urine and is precipitated from it by nitric acid. In 1800 he identified carbon monoxide as a compound containing carbon and oxygen, and also used chlorine to purify water.