174 ANDREW JACKSON HOWE. 



such an enterprise better than Hunter ; and few ever 

 entered upon such a great work with his zeal and 

 assurance of success. 



Hunter had the faculty of making one branch of 

 study help another; and he always exhibited a dispo- 

 sition to institute comparisons while carrying out ex- 

 periments. One night he dressed the leg of a man 

 who had sustained a compound fracture ; and the 

 next morning he broke the leg of a pig, leaving it to 

 get along without treatment, in order that some valu- 

 able hint might be derived from the phases of a case 

 left to take care of itself. The humane laws of En- 

 gland recently passed to prevent vivisection and cruelty 

 to animals, would, if enacted a hundred years ago, 

 have deprived Hunter of many prolific sources of ob- 

 servation. No wonder the scientific men of to-day 

 have raised their voices against these encroachments 

 upon the right to carry on investigation, especially as 

 many of these kind-hearted law makers own pre- 

 serves where animals are kept for the sole pleasure of 

 the chase. 



As an author Hunter was a success, although he 

 did not live to carry into execution the half he had 

 prepared for publication. His first work that on 

 Human Teeth is clear and comprehensive, though 

 not so large as the topic would permit at the present 

 day. His work on the Blood and Inflammation, 

 which is crammed with original observations, he la- 

 bored upon more or less for a period of forty years, 

 and had only begun to put it in type when he sud- 

 denly died. The stock of unpublished manuscript 

 left behind was immense. It is to be expected that a 

 busy man will begin more than he can finish. Mr. 

 Flower, in speaking of the writings of Hunter, says: 



