He was a professor of chemistry at the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich, England. As Surgeon of Artillery and to the Medical Department he prepared the medicaments. Cruikshank tested salts from various geographical locations, one of which was strontianate, found near Strontian, in Argyleshire, Scotland in 1790. His experiments suggested that this mineral “really possesses different properties from the terra ponderosa (barium carbonate) of Scheele and Bergman.” He showed the heavy inflammable air discovered by Priestley was carbon monoxide in 1801.

*Also spelled "Cruickshank", should not be confused with William Cumberland Cruickshank (1745-1800), an anatomist and physiologist of the Huntarian, or Windmill Street, School of Medicine in Soho in London, England.

1. "Strontium" article in the Hexagon of Alpha Chi Sigma
   
   
2. Woolwich, England
   
   
3. Strontian, Scotland