Drummond's ‘Town Eclogue,’ 1804, where he is styled ‘courteous Cullen.’ An amusing description of a supper at Inverary, at which he and Lord Hermand, of ‘opposite politics and no friends,’ were at last ‘soldered’ by ‘good cheer,’ is recorded by Lord Cockburn in his ‘Journal’ (i. 267). Cullen's remarkable gift of mimicry made him an acquisition in all the social circles he frequented; and as it was generally exercised in a good-humoured fashion, it provoked little or no hostility from those who were the subjects of it. According to Dugald Stewart, he was ‘the most perfect of all mimics,’ his power extending not merely to external peculiarities, but to the very thoughts and words of his subjects. Many anecdotes are recorded of his imitative talents, of which a specimen may be given. Once when the guest of the lord president of the court of session, after he had exhibited, at the request of the company, the peculiarities of the leading judges, he, on the insistence of the host, agreed reluctantly to include him also. The company were convulsed with laughter, all except the host himself, who dryly remarked: ‘Very amusing, Mr. Robert, very amusing, truly; ye're a clever lad, very clever; but just let me tell you, that's not the way, to rise at the bar.’ On the death of Lord Alvah, in 1796, Cullen was appointed a lord of session, under the title of Lord Cullen, and on 29 June 1799 he succeeded Lord Swinton as a lord justiciary. He died at Edinburgh on 28 Nov. 1810. Late in life he married a servant girl of the name of Russel, by whom he had no issue, and who afterwards married a gentleman of property in the West Indies, where she died in 1818.
[Kay's Original Portraits, ii. 336–8; Haig and Brunton's Senators of the College of Justice, 543; Lord Cockburn's Memorials (ed. 1856), 144–6; Lord Cockburn's Journal, i. 267–8.]
CULLEN, WILLIAM (1710–1790), physician, was born at Hamilton, Lanarkshire, on 15 April 1710, his father being factor to the Duke of Hamilton. He was early sent to Glasgow University, becoming also the pupil of a medical man named Paisley, whose good medical library and studious habits greatly aided the youth. At the close of 1729 Cullen went to London, and obtained a post as surgeon to a merchant ship commanded by a relative, with whom he went to the West Indies, and remained six months at Portobello. Returning to London, he for some time assisted an apothecary in Henrietta Street, and studied hard. His father and eldest brother having died, he was obliged to go back to Scotland in the winter of 1731–2 to make provision for his younger brothers and sisters, and began practice at Auchinlee, near Hamilton. After two years he was enabled by the receipt of a small legacy to take up a more advanced course of study, first securing tuition from a dissenting minister in Northumberland in literature and philosophy, and then spending two winter sessions (1734–6) at the Edinburgh Medical School under Monro primus. In 1736 he commenced practice as a surgeon in Hamilton, and soon gained the support of the Duke and Duchess of Hamilton, whose influence and promises retained him there till 1744, although he was much attracted to Glasgow. During 1739 and 1740 he was chief magistrate of Hamilton. From 1737 to 1740 William Hunter, elder brother of John Hunter, was Cullen's resident pupil, and continued through life his attached friend, referring to him as ‘a man to whom I owe most, and love most of all men in the world.’
Having graduated M.D. at Glasgow in 1740, Cullen took a partner for surgical work, and in 1741 married Miss Anna Johnstone, a lady of much conversational power and charming manners, who became the mother of seven sons and four daughters, and died in 1786. From 1744, when he removed to Glasgow, Cullen was much occupied in founding a medical school there, himself lecturing on medicine and several other subjects. Joseph Black [q. v.] was his intimate pupil for some years, and dedicated to him his celebrated treatise on fixed air. Cullen about this time made some discoveries on the evolution of heat in chemical combination and the cooling of solutions, which were not published till 1755 (‘Essay on the Cold produced by Evaporating Fluids,’ &c. in ‘Edinburgh Philosophical and Literary Essays,’ vol. ii. 1755; afterwards republished together with Black's ‘Experiments upon Magnesia Alba, Quicklime,’ &c. Edinburgh, 1777), while others remained in manuscript, and suggested to Black important points in relation to latent heat. The master was sufficiently discerning to appreciate Black, and magnanimous enough to abstain from appropriating his ideas or pursuing similar researches.
Early in 1751 Cullen succeeded Dr. Johnstone as professor of medicine in Glasgow University, by the influence of the Duke of Argyll. His private practice did not become lucrative, nor did the medical school grow rapidly; consequently Cullen was advised by influential friends to seek an appointment in Edinburgh. On 9 Nov. 1755 he was elected joint professor of chemistry at Edinburgh, entering on his work in the following January, and becoming sole professor in July on
