James Russell FRSE RSA (1754–1836) was a Scottish surgeon who was the first professor of clinical surgery at the University of Edinburgh. He was president of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and was a co-founder of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. In 1805 he published one of the earliest descriptions of direct inguinal hernia. His collection of anatomical specimens was donated to the Surgeon's Hall in Edinburgh and is now known as the James Russell Collection.
Contents
Early life
He was born in Edinburgh. His father, also James Russell (d 1773), was a surgeon who became Deacon (President) of the Incorporation of Surgeons in 1752. He gave up his surgical career to take up the Chair of Natural Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh in 1764 succeeding Adam Ferguson who had become Professor of Moral Philosophy. James Russell senior was a cousin of the chemist Joseph Black. He married Margaret Balfour of Pilrig, great aunt to Robert Louis Stevenson. Their son, James Russell, was educated at the Royal High School from 1761 to 1764 and then studied medicine at Edinburgh University.