William Stirling

William “Billy” Stirling MD, FRSE (26 January 1851 in Grangemouth – 1 October 1932 in Manchester), was a professor of physiology and a founder of the physiology department at the Victoria University of Manchester.

After graduating from the Dollar Academy, Stirling studied science and medicine at the University of Edinburgh, graduating with academic distinction as DSc (1872) and MD (1875, with gold medal). He then studied at the University of Leipzig under Professor Carl Ludwig, and at Paris under Professor Louis-Antoine Ranvier. Stirling was appointed demonstrator of zoology and, later, of physiology at the University of Edinburgh. In 1877 he became Regius Professor of the Institutes of Medicine in the University of Aberdeen. Stirling was, upon the resignation of Arthur Gamgee, the Brackenbury Professor of Physiology and Histology at Owens College (in 1904 renamed the Victoria University of Manchester) from 1886 until his retirement in 1919. In the Brackenbury Professorship, he was succeeded by A. V. Hill.

Stirling was in 1902–1913 dean of the medical school of Owens College (renamed Victoria University of Manchester in 1904) and gave many public lectures on medicine and public health. After he became a professor at the University of Aberdeen he no longer did scientific research and concentrated on teaching, administration, and writing. He translated Leonard Landois's Lehrbuch der Physiologie des Menschen in 1884, and wrote Outlines of Practical Physiology (1888) and Outlines of Practical Histology (1890). Stirling was in 1906–1909 Fullerian Professor of Physiology of the Royal Institution, London. He was a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and was elected in 1877 a member of the Physiological Society. William Stirling, Jr., his son, became an ophthalmic surgeon in Manchester.

• A text-book of practical histology, 1881
• Outlines of practical physiology: being a manual for the physiological laboratory, including chemical and experimental physiology, with reference to practical medicine, 1895
• Some apostles of physiology : being an account of their lives and labours, labours that have contributed to the advancement of the healing art as well as to the prevention of disease. With Frederick Grant Banting, private printing, 1902