THE CRANIOLOGY OF MAN AND ANTHROPOID APES/' 



By N. C. Macnamaua/' 



Fel/iiir of llii' Iloi/al Col/i-gc of Siiivjcoiik of EiKjlavd, and iiho of the K. C. S. of Inland; 

 fflloir of tlir Crdnitta Unircrsili/. 



[Tlif Hniiterian Dratioii delivorcd mi Tliursday, February 14, 1901. at the Royal College of Surgeons 



of England.] 



(Ientlemen: We have as.seijibled here to-day in order that we may 

 commemorate the merits of John Hunter and such other ])ersons whose 

 hibors have contributed to the extension of our knowhxlge in compara- 

 tive anatoni}", physiology, or surgery. Hunter's hfe, in all its \'arious 

 aspects, has been so frequently dwelt on in former orations delivered 

 in this theater that it is beyond my power to throw any fresh light on 

 this subject. His fame is attributable to his having possessed an 

 intense love of science, indomital)le energy, and a self-reliant, manly 

 character. If we turn to his portrait hanging on tlu^ walls of this 

 theater it would seem that at the time this likeness was })aint(Ml Hunter 

 was engaged in the study of the craniology of man and anthropoid 

 apes, for on the table before him there is an open volume, and on its 

 pages we see clearly drawn a human skull and the skull of a chim- 

 panzee. Hunter is portrayed pen in hand, in deep thouglit, having 

 just turned away from the book he had l^een studying; and though his 

 notes on comparative anatoni}^ were unfortunately destroyed with his 



" Reprinted by permission from edition pnl)lished l»y the anthor. London : Smith, 

 Elder & Co., 1901. 



//The chart [here made into several i)lates] accompanying the text of tliis oration 

 wa.s compiled from photographs of casts and of skulls in the museum of the Koyal 

 College of Surgeons of England. These ]ihotographs, Avith four exceptions, were 

 taken ])y Mr. George in the photographic room on the college i)remises by kind 

 permission of Prof. C. Stewart. The four exceptions includ3 three photographs 

 from skulls in the Thurnam collection, forming a part of the anatomical museum of 

 the University of Cambridge, for which I have to thank Dr. J. Griffiths, and the 

 fourth is a photograph of one of the Mentone skulls, for which I am indebted to 

 A. J. Binny, esq. The other specimens shown on the chart were on the table, and 

 were referred to during the oration. The portrait of John Hunter hanging on the 

 wall of the theater belongs to the college, and was painted in the year 1785 by Sir 

 Joshua Reynolds. The oration is published at the request of the council of the 

 college. — N. C. ]Macnamara. 



13 Grosvenor street W., March, 1901. 



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