John Struthers

John Struthers was born in Dunfermline and educated privately. He was the second of three brothers, all of whom became members of the medical profession. After graduating he took up surgery and was appointed to the Royal Infirmary.

After a few years, however, he abandoned surgery in favour of anatomy and was appointed Professor of Anatomy at Aberdeen, a post he held for 26 years. There he reorganised the whole teaching of anatomy and created an excellent museum of anatomy.

As a member of the General Medical Council from 1883 to 1891, he rendered valuable service to medical education. He urged an extension of practical work and a diminution of pure lecturing, the institution of research laboratories, the extension of the medical curriculum to five years and the institution of a preliminary scientific year with physics as one of the obligatory subjects.

He retired from his Chair in Aberdeen in 1889 and returned to Edinburgh where he devoted his time and energies to the welfare of the Royal College of Surgeons. He was President from 1895 to 1897 and was knighted in 1898. In 1899 the Struthers Lecture was inaugurated and was given every third year until 1974.

The list of his published writings is long. He wrote mainly on anatomy, human and comparative, but he was also the author of a historical sketch on the Edinburgh anatomical school.

His younger brother, Alexander, who died in the Crimea, was a fellow resident of Joseph Lister. His son, John Struthers, was a surgeon in Edinburgh Royal Infirmary and President of the College from 1941 to 1943.