MEMOIR OF JOHN HUNTER. 19 



distinguished an ornament. One of these biogra- 

 phies proceeded from the pen of a near relation, the 

 late Sir Everard Home ; another is written by an 

 individual whose chief celebrity appears to have 

 arisen from his being the opponent, and, to the ex- 

 tent of his ability, the persecutor of Mr Hunter; 

 the third is the production of a pupil and friend, Dr 

 Joseph Adams, a name well known in the annals of 

 medicine. From these sources we have drawn libe- 

 rally in the following pages; but, at the same time, we 

 must be allowed to add, that the life of John Hunter is 

 still a decided desideratum. In what follows, we have 

 endeavoured to reduce the merely professional fea- 

 tures of his character to their just proportions ; and 

 we trust that the following sketch will be found by the 

 naturalist to be at once interesting and instructive. 



We shall only further observe, that the portrait at 

 the commencement of this volume, is a faithful copy 

 of Sharp's celebrated and now scarce engraving of 

 Sir Joshua Reynolds' picture. It is recorded, that 

 when these lineaments of Mr Hunter's interesting 

 countenance were shown to Lavater, he observed 

 " That man thinks for himself," a remark of the 

 justness of which the following pages will afford 

 abundant evidence. 



JOHN HUNTER was the son of John and Agnes 

 Hunter of Kilbride (Easter), in the county of La- 

 nark. His father was descended from Hunter ol 

 Hunterston, an old family in Ayrshire, and his mo- 



