John Smith (1721–1797) was a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

physician and academic. Smith was born in

Maybole Maybole (, ) is a town and former burgh of barony and police burgh in South Ayrshire, Scotland. It had an estimated population of in . It is situated south of Ayr and southwest of Glasgow by the Glasgow and South Western Railway. The town is ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

, where his father, William, was a merchant... He studied at the

University of Glasgow The University of Glasgow (abbreviated as ''Glas.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals; ) is a Public university, public research university in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded by papal bull in , it is the List of oldest universities in continuous ...

beginning in 1736, entered

Balliol College, Oxford Balliol College () is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. Founded in 1263 by nobleman John I de Balliol, it has a claim to be the oldest college in Oxford and the English-speaking world. With a governing body of a master and aro ...

in 1744 with the support of the

Snell Exhibition The Snell Exhibition is an annual scholarship awarded to students of the University of Glasgow to allow them to undertake postgraduate study at Balliol College, Oxford. The award was founded by the bequest of Sir John Snell in a will made in 16 ...

, and earned a B.A. in 1748 and an M.A. in 1751 from Balliol. He then studied under

Nathan Alcock Nathan Alcock (September 1707 – 8 December 1779) was an English physician. Early life and education Nathan Alcock was born at Aston, near Runcorn, Cheshire, England, the second son of David Alcock and his wife Mary née Breck. David Alcock ...

St Mary Hall St Mary Hall was a medieval academic hall of the University of Oxford. It was associated with Oriel College from 1326 to 1545, but functioned independently from 1545 until it was re-incorporated into Oriel College in 1902. History In 13 ...

, earning his doctorate in 1757.. Alcock left Oxford for Bath in the same year, and Smith took his place.. At Oxford, he taught

anatomy Anatomy () is the branch of morphology concerned with the study of the internal structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old scien ...

and

chemistry Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a physical science within the natural sciences that studies the chemical elements that make up matter and chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules a ...

. Despite not being a mathematician, he held the

Savilian chair of geometry The position of Savilian Professor of Geometry was established at the University of Oxford in 1619. It was founded (at the same time as the Savilian Professorship of Astronomy) by Sir Henry Savile, a mathematician and classical scholar who was ...

from 1766 until his death in 1797..

References

1721 births 1797 deaths Savilian Professors of Geometry 18th-century Scottish medical doctors Alumni of the University of Glasgow Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford 18th-century Scottish scientists {{Authority control