William Cumberland Cruikshank

Who was William Cumberland Cruikshank?

William Cumberland Cruikshank was a British chemist and anatomist. He was the author of The Anatomy of the Absorbing Vessels of the Human Body, which was first published in 1786.

He went to London in 1771 and became assistant to William Hunter in his anatomical work. 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. He identified carbon monoxide as a compound containing carbon and oxygen in 1800. In 1800 he also used chlorine to purify water.

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in June 1797.