47 



— had he succeeded in cutting off the greater part of the blood 

 supply ? To determine this he had the buck killed, and made a 

 dissection, when he found that the carotid arteiy was occluded, 

 but that the anastomoses had enlarged to such an extent as to 

 efficiently take up its Avork. The term anastomoses is used by 

 anatomists to indicate the comparatively minute cross-branches 

 which the larger arteries send fi'om one to the other. He thus 

 made it evident that, as he phrased it, " under the stimulus of 

 necessity, the small vessels could enlarge rapidly, so as to take 

 the duty of the larger." Hunter went on to make use of his 

 newly acquired knowledge. lu the December following he had 

 in St. George's Hospital a patient suffering fi'om popUteal aneu- 

 rism — that is an anemism situated in the bend behind the knee 

 joint. An aneurism is a dilatation and a weakening of a large 

 artery, which if left to itself usually ends in rupture of the blood 

 vessel, or in mortification of the limb, both of which result in 

 death. Up to John Hunter's time the only successful treatment 

 had been either to amputate the limb or to cut into the aneurism 

 and tie the vessel above and below, both very hazardous opera- 

 tions. It occuiTed to him, thinking over his antler experiment, 

 why should not the arteiy be tied at a healthy point where the 

 wound would speedily heal, and why should not a man's anasto- 

 mosing vessels dilate to keep up the circulation and groAvth of 

 the Umb ? Can-ying out the idea, he tied the artery in the 

 middle of the thigh where it runs clear away from the diseased 

 part. A few hours after the operation the leg was found to be 

 rather higher in tempera tm-e than normally, and in six weeks 

 the patient was able to leave the hospital cured, and with a 

 sound Umb, This surgical operation alone has saved hundreds 

 of lives, and as AssaUni. an Italian who first saw it performed, 

 testifies, " excited the greatest wonder, and awakened the atten- 

 tion of all the surgeons in Europe." About this time also he 

 began to suffer from angina pectoris, a kind of spasm of the heart 

 — attacks of which disease came on after any violent mental or 

 bodily exercise. This gradually increased and on October 16th, 

 1793, proved fatal at St. George's Hospital. His remains were in- 

 terred in St. Martin' s-in-tlie-Fields, when in March, 1854, chiefly 

 through the instrumentality of Mr. Frank Buckiand, they were re- 

 moved to Abbot Islip's Chapel in Westminster Abbey close to the 

 resting place of Ben Jonson. After Hunter's death, and in accord- 

 ance with his wiU, his museum was offered to the nation. It con- 

 tained over 13,000 specimens, and had cost him at least £70,000. 

 When Pitt, then Prime Minister, was asked to purchase it, he 

 exclaimed " What ! buy preparations ! Why I have not money 

 enough to purchase gun-powder," so the matter stood over for 

 some six years when Parliament voted £15,000 for the purpose. 

 It was handed over to the care of the College of Surgeons iu 



