Andrew Plummer (1697-1756)

Andrew Plummer (1697-1756) was Professor of Chemistry at Edinburgh University from 1726 to 1755.

On 9 February 1726, the Town Council of Edinburgh issued an Act which is effectively the foundational charter of the Faculty of Medicine. It appointed two Professors of the Theory and Practice of Medicine and two Professors of Medicine and Chemistry, and granted Edinburgh University the right not only to teach medicine 'in all its branches' but to examine students and confer degrees in medicine. In October 1726, a meeting of the Senatus Academicus formally recognized the four newly created Chairs as constituting a Faculty of Medicine along with the Chair of Anatomy.

Plummer was one of the two 'Professors of Medicine and Chemistry', and appears immediately to have taken over the teaching of Chemistry from James Crawford (1682-1731) who had been appointed to the newly created Chair of Chemistry in 1713. Crawford had divided his time between the Chairs of Chemistry and Hebrew since 1719 but from now on taught Hebrew alone. Plummer remained in post until shortly before his death, resigning in favour of William Cullen (1710-1790).