Book of the Month: Rutty's An Essay towards a Natural History of the County of Dublin
John Rutty was born to a Quaker family in Wiltshire, England, on Christmas Day, 1698. He studied medicine at the University of Leyden, graduating M.D. in 1723. The following year, he came to Dublin where he practised as a physician for the rest of his life.
Like many of his contemporary physicians, Rutty had an interest in general science and natural history, beyond the bounds of pure medicine. Along with two colleagues, he founded the Medico-Philosophical Society in 1756 as a small, private society which met once a month to discuss scientific papers. The papers of this society are held by the RCPI Archive, for more details click here. He had a particular interest in botany and spent much time rambling in the countryside around Dublin.
This interest was eventually to culminate in the publication of his Essay towards a Natural History of the County of Dublin, in two volumes in 1772. The Dublin Society (now the Royal Dublin Society) gave a grant of £50 towards the publication. The Royal College of Physicians of Ireland also supported the venture and gave £30.
The book was one of the first of its type to be devoted to a single county in Ireland. It recorded all aspects of natural history in and around Dublin, with separate sections dealing with plants (called "vegetables" by Rutty), animals, birds, fishes, insects, agriculture, minerals and mineral waters. Also included are recommendations for improvements to the Dublin Bills of Mortality and a monthly register of the weather from 1716 to 1724. Rutty also advocated the cleaning of the streets of the city as a precaution against disease and identified the excessive consumption of alcohol as a cause of death.
Rutty died just three years after the publication of this book, aged 77, and was interred in the Friends Burying Ground which lay where the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland now stands.
 |
| Illustration from Rutty's Natural History |
* Harrison, R. S. Dr John Rutty (1698-1775) of Dublin: A Quaker Polymath in the Enlightment. Dublin, 2011.
Robert Mills, RCPI Librarian