December 30, 1897] 



NA TURE 



195 



is only of late years that the critical spirit, which has 

 reduced the writing of history to a science, has begun to 

 pervade the historians of medicine. Mr. Paget has 

 performed his work excellently, for he has consulted 

 original authorities and has availed himself, by the 

 kindness of Miss Hunter-Baillie, of such documents 

 belonging to the Hunter family as are now in her 

 possession. Fresh light is thus thrown upon some of 

 the more obscure points in Hunter's career, whilst the 

 charming personality of Mrs. Hunter, who selected the 

 words for Haydn's Creation, is brought into bolder relief. 

 John Hunter, the founder of pathology, or the science 

 which deals with the causes and progress of disease, was 

 one of the younger members of a very remarkable band 

 of pioneers in medicine who were born within a few 

 miles of each other in a remote country district of 

 Scotland, and who floui-ished in the middle of the last 

 century. First in seniority was Smellie, of Lanark, the 

 great man-midwife ; then Cullen, sometime professor of 

 medicine in Edinburgh, born at Hamilton ; after him 

 came William Hunter, in some respects greater even 

 than John, his youngest brother ; and finally Matthew 

 Baillie, nephew of the Hunters, and the most worthy 

 disciple of his uncles. Smollett, too, was the intimate 

 friend of Smellie, and so must have known the Hunters. 

 It would be of extreme interest to know the factors 

 which led to the production of such extraordinary talent 

 in so circumscribed an area and for so limited a period. 

 In the Hunter family no less than three sons of the ten 

 children were extraordinarily gifted, and in each case 

 their genius was directed towards medical science. That 

 the genius was innate is clearly shown by the fact that 

 John Hunter instantly became an accomplished an- 

 atomist, and that although he was an original thinker 

 of the highest power, he was in many respects illiterate, 

 and always had the greatest difficulty in expressing his 

 thoughts in words. Beginning with nothing, John 

 Hunter, after many years of struggle, achieved a fore- 

 most place amongst the surgeons of London. But it 

 was by his teaching, rather than by his clinical powers, 

 that he gained his reputation. Edward Jenner, in 

 England, the discoverer of vaccination, and Dr. Physick, 

 who lived to become the veteran exponent of his master's 



1 teaching in America, were amongst his house pupils, 

 whilst all the foremost surgeons of the next generation 

 had attended his lectures — lectures which cost his hearers 

 but tenpence a-piece, as Mr. Paget points out, for they 

 ' were near a hundred in number, the honorarium for the 

 course being four guineas. Yet the lectures were of the 

 most magnificent kind, for they comprehended the whole 

 circle of the sciences round surgery. They were made 

 at a great cost to Hunter, for his brother-in-law, (Sir) 

 Everard Home says of them : 



" Giving lectures was always particularly unpleasant to 

 him; so thatthe desire of submitting his opinions to the 

 world, and learning their general estimation, was scarcely 

 sufficient to overcome his natural dislike to speaking in 

 public. He never gave the first lecture of his course 

 without taking thirty drops of laudanum to take off the 

 effects of his uneasiness. He was so diffident of himself 

 that he trusted nothing to memory, and made me draw 

 up a short abstract of each lecture, which he read on the 

 following evening as a recapitulation to connect the sub- 

 ject in the minds of the students." 



NO. 1470, VOL. 57] 



It is no wonder, therefore, that the toils of his 

 practice, the cares attending the amassing of the 

 nucleus of the magnificent museum now housed in 

 Lincoln's Inn Fields, and the labours of teaching, 

 early overweighted a body by no means strong. He 

 suffered from angina pectoris for many years before his 

 death, and was wont to say that his life was at the mercy 

 of any rascal who chose to irritate him, and he was very 

 irritable. He died suddenly at St. George's Hospital, 

 October i6, 1793, on the same day, and perhaps at the 

 same hour, that the unfortunate Marie Antoinette, Queen 

 of France, was beheaded in Paris. He was buried in the 

 vault of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, whence the pious care 

 of Frank Buckland rescued his remains in 1859, and 

 they were re-interred in Westminster Abbey. 



Mr. Paget has performed his task most excellently, 

 and if the present volume is to be taken as a standard 

 for the series the sale should be large. Not only is the 

 book well and pleasantly written, abounding in anecdote, 

 but it is most tastefully produced, so that the paper, the 

 print, the binding, and the reproduction of a part of Sir 

 Joshua Reynolds' portrait of Hunter are in every way 

 admirable. 



SELECTIONS FROM A DIARY. 

 The Journals of Walter White, Assistant Secretary of 

 the Royal Society. With a preface by his brother, 

 William White. Pp. vii -I- 285. (London : Chapman 

 and Hall, Ltd., 1898.) 



MOST of the Fellows of the Royal Society of more 

 than twelve years' standing will retain a lively 

 recollection of Mr. Walter White, whilom Assistant 

 Secretary to the Society, and will look with interest into 

 the present volume. Mr. White entered the service of 

 the Royal Society in 1844, and in 1861 (not, as incorrectly 

 stated in the preface, in 1853, "less than ten years") 

 was appointed Assistant Secretary, which office he held 

 until 1885. During this long period he had unusual 

 opportunities of watching the inner working of the 

 Society, and thus the development of scientific ideas 

 and activities ; and the reader of the diary of so shrewd 

 and observant man as he was, would naturally expect to 

 learn much. We are compelled to say at once that such 

 expectations will not be fulfilled. 



The first chapter, which contains entries in the diary up 

 to the time of his attaining a post at the Royal Society, is 

 interesting as showing how a man, brought up as a cabinet- 

 maker, after pursuing diligently his trade for some years, 

 by continued intellectual toil, bravely teaching himself, 

 won his way, amid many discouraging circumstances, 

 to a means of livelihood more congenial to his nature. 

 It will probably surprise many of the Fellows of the 

 Royal Society to learn that one whose great knowledge 

 of languages and literature had often been of help to 

 them, had spent so many of his earlier years at the 

 joiner's bench. 



The third chapter puts together a number of entries 

 illustratmg Mr. Walter White's intimacy with the late 

 Lord Tennyson. From one of these entries we gather 

 that it was a suggestion from Mr. Walter White which 

 led the poet eventually to build a house at Haslemere. 



The second and fourth chapters contain, together with 



