Thomas Burnet

Sir Thomas Burnet (1638–1704) was a Scottish physician, known for his appointment to successive English monarchs, and as an author in the tradition of Early Modern learned medicine.

Life A younger son of Robert Burnet, Lord Crimond and his second wife Rachel Johnston, he was a brother of Gilbert Burnet, the noted historian and Bishop of Salisbury. He studied and graduated in medicine at the University of Montpellier, when already M.A., and the theses which he defended for his degree on 26–28 August 1659 show that his medical knowledge was mainly based on Galen and Hippocrates. He returned to Edinburgh and practised there.

Burnet is named in the original charter of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, granted in 1681, as a fellow.