Professor E.W.H. Cruickshank occupied the Regius chair of Physiology from 1936 to 1958. Professor Cruickshank took his first degree in medicine at Aberdeen in 1910, and not content to study medicine as a thing by itself he confused his colleagues by relating it to Science.

Professor Cruickshank's career was remarkable in many respects but he was particular singular in having a number of doubles to his credit. He was the elder of twins both of whom earned a reputation in the same profession. He was a physician and a scientist being pre-eminent in both spheres - a Doctor of Medicine of Aberdeen and a Doctor of Science of London. He was a Carnegie and a Rockefeller Research Fellow and was a professor of both his subjects on two separate occasions in each of two hemispheres - in Novia Scotia and St Louis and in Patna and Peking.

He occupied the Regius chair for twenty-four years and forged a vital link between the then Faculties of Science and Medicine. He was invited to Geneva on two occasions as a consultant to the World Food Organisation and because of his acknowledged wealth of experience in pre-clinical medicine he advised on university training in India, Burma, Indonesia and Egypt.