Synopsis
The life of this unlikely Dubliner, Dr John Rutty typifies in a quiet way, the spread of Enlightenment rationality in Ireland, and its connections with the wider Europe. The extensive network of Irish correspondents developed by Rutty, was enriched by his connections of friendship and information with doctors and scientists in Scotland, England and Wales. A participant in the Physico-Historical Society, his friends included the Rev Samuel ('premium') Madden, Dean John Richardson of Kilmacduagh, the Rev Richard Barton, and the Rev William Henry . With Charles Smith, the apothecary and historian he was a founder member of the Medico-Philosophical society, and associated with George Cleghorn, the anatomist, and David MacBride the chemist and physician. His own medical and scientific preoccupations were revealed in his chemical experiments on mineral waters, and on dissolvents of the urinary stone, as well as in tests on medicinal plants, and the promotion of simple locally-based prescription, instead of an expensive polypharmacy. From such a background of research, Rutty composed his books including the History of the mineral waters of Ireland (1757); and the Essay towards a natural history of Dublin (1772). A desire to disprove popular weather fallacies, as well as to test a hypothesis about the connection of disease and the weather, encouraged him to write his Chronological history of the weather (1770) which contains the sole consistent account of the Great Frost of 1739-40. Rutty, an orthodox Quaker, the historian of Irish Quakerism, deprecated the worldliness of his co-religionists, and their contemporary neglect of the Holy Bible, and the historical facts of revelation. Although a true-blue Protestant, he felt equally blessed in his life from reading in the spiritual writings of Roman Catholics or Protestants, seeing a union of hearts as possible without uniformity of opinion.
About the Author
Richard S. Harrison is a member of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) and of its Historical Committee. He is a graduate of Trinity College, Dublin and carried out some of the research for this book under the aegis of its Department of Modern History. Among his previous publications have been, Merchants, mystics and philanthropists: 350 years of Cork Quakers (Cork, 2006); A biographical dictionary of Irish Quakers (2nd ed., Dublin, 2008); The Richardsons of Bessbrook: Ulster Quakers in the linen industry (1845- 1921) (Dublin, 2008)
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