Daniel Rutherford (1749-1819) was a Scottish physician, chemist and botanist who discovered and isolated nitrogen gas in 1772. He kept a mouse in a container of air until it died, burned a candle until it was extinguished and finally burned phosphorus until it would not burn anymore. He passed the remaining gas through an alkaline solution to remove any carbon dioxide. Rutherford called the remaining gas "noxious air" or "phlogisticated air" because it would not support life or combustion. He was a professor of botany at the University of Edinburgh and keeper of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. He died in 1819 at the age of 70.
