William Seller


Dr William Seller FRSE PRCPE was a Scottish physician and botanist. From 1848 to 1850 he was President of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

Life

He was born on 9 November 1797 in Peterhead in Aberdeenshire. His father appears to have died when he was young and he moved to Bailie Fyfe's Close on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh with his mother. He was educated in the High School in Edinburgh. He studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh, graduating with an MD in 1821. He then began lecturing in Materia Medica at the Extra-Mural School in Edinburgh. He was also a Physician both at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary and at the Edinburgh Public Dispensary.
In 1830 he was living at Brown Square in Edinburgh.
In 1850 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, his proposer being Sir Robert Christison. He won the Society's Makdougall Brisbane Prize for the period 1860-62 for his memoir of Robert Whytt. Over and above his presidency of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, he was also President of the Medico-Chirurgical Society in 1854 and President of the Botanical Society of Edinburgh in 1851–52 and 1857–58.
He died at his home 18 Northumberland Street in Edinburgh's New Town on 11 April 1869 and is buried in Dean Cemetery in western Edinburgh. The grave lies on the south side of the wall dividing the original cemetery from the northern extension, close to its eastern end.

Publications