18 MEMOIR OP JOHN HUNTER. 



however, only served to conduct his inquiring mind 

 into the boundless regions of Nature's wonders, to 

 the examination of which he devoted himself with 

 undeviating enthusiasm ; so that every thing that 

 lived, from man himself, down to the blade on which 

 he treads, and the insect which it nourishes, became 

 in its turn the subject of his penetrating scrutiny. 

 Human speedily led to comparative anatomy, and 

 this latter merged in the study of all animated na- 

 ture. Mr Hunter, however, was not born to an in- 

 dependent fortune ; and the entanglements and re- 

 sponsibilities of his profession necessarily encroach- 

 ed upon his scientific labours. Nevertheless, even 

 his profession was made subservient to the aspirings 

 of his genius ; and out of its honourable gains, he 

 proceeded gradually to rear his own most lasting 

 monument, in a Museum, which, though known 

 to the public only in connection with a professional 

 body (the London Royal College of Surgeons), has 

 yet realized the splendid design of its founder, by 

 forming, in no small measure, a concentration of the 

 natural history of the world. 



Another circumstance, which has materially con- 

 tributed to stamp Mr Hunter's celebrity with that 

 limited and professional character to which we have 

 alluded, is, that his life has been written only by his 

 professional brethren, men who naturally consider- 

 ed it their main object to supply that species of in- 

 formation which would be most highly valued by 

 that learned body of which Mr Hunter formed so 



