HUNTERIAN ORATION. 165 



surroundings kindled in the mind of the younger 

 Hunter an ardent desire to study comparative anatomy, 

 and to learn all he could about plants and animals. At 

 any rate, it was not long before the untutored rustic 

 drifted into the habits of a scientific student. Al- 

 though biological subjects had begun to be discussed 

 at that time, there were no schools where comparative 

 physiology was taught or encouraged as a practical 

 study. Young Hunter had to be his own teacher ; 

 and he pursued his own methods of investigation. 

 And notwithstanding the many blunders he must have 

 made, his progress was so marked that he soon at- 

 tracted the attention of the scientific men of Europe. 

 But what puzzled the wiseacres most was to fathom 

 the object Hunter had in view. The fact that he was 

 an enthusiastic worker showed that he might become 

 somebody in the world, yet was he intending to be a 

 surgeon or a biologist ? Was he endeavoring to find 

 out the cause of organic development, or was he seek- 

 ing facts in a general way for the sake of ripening his 

 understanding? Perhaps he found the ordinary details 

 of the medical profession too dry, and was inquiring 

 into the origin, growth, decline, and death of organic 

 bodies just for recreation. Possibly he was seeking 

 physiological knowledge which might prove service- 

 able in curing surgical diseases. To the shortsighted 

 it seemed that too much time was spent over compar- 

 ative anatomy and physiology if the practice of medi- 

 cine was in view as an end ; and too much attention 

 was devoted to surgery, if the student was preparing 

 himself to be a naturalist. 



The contemporaries of Hunter, rather his com- 

 petitors in the medical profession, looked upon him 

 as a man possessed of an erratic mind, and little 



