164 ANDREW JACKSON HOWE. 



a promising lad. He was inclined to be idle, and his 

 education was neglected. At the age of eighteen he 

 worked a year or two at cabinet making with a brother- 

 in-law at Glasgow; and might have continued at that 

 trade had his relative succeeded in business, but finan- 

 cial disaster threw him out of employment. At twenty 

 he was casting about for means of support, and ac- 

 cepted the first offer which presented itself. If this 

 had been to go on a whaling trip, he would have gone, 

 for he was listlessly waiting for something to turn up. 

 He was as likely to become a vagabond as any youth 

 floating about with nothing to do. As it happened, 

 the opportunity was auspicious and improved. From 

 this time he worked diligently, and finally became one 

 of the world's great men. Westminster Abbey, the 

 burial place of England's illustrious dead, contains a 

 tablet that bears the following inscription : "Beneath 

 are deposited the remains of John Hunter. Born at 

 Long Calderwood, on the 13th of February, 1728; 

 died in London on the 16th of October, 1793. His 

 remains were removed from the Church of St. Mar- 

 tins-in-the-Fields to this Abbey on the 28th of March ,. 

 1859." 



The circumstance that opened the way to great- 

 ness for John Hunter consisted in his having an older 

 brother who had obtained a reputable medical practice 

 in London, and who invited John to live awhile with 

 him, the conditions being that if he made no satis- 

 factory progress in dissections and anatomical studies, 

 he should go into the army. 



Dr. William Hunter, who thus gave his brother 

 an opportunity to display his talents, was teacher of 

 anatomy, and possessed quite a collection of specimens 

 in natural history; and it is highly probable that such 



