76 NATURAL HISTORY. 



day. Hunter perceived the want of this knowledge, which 

 in his opinion could alone furnish a sure foundation for 

 the future improvement of surgery ; and it was to con- 

 tribute towards supplying the deficiency that his labours 

 were hereafter to be unceasingly directed. 



'He clearly saw, that in order to obtain just concep- 

 tions of the nature of those aberrations from healthy 

 actions which constitute disease, it was necessary first 

 to understand well the healthy actions themselves; and 

 that these required to be studied, not in man alone, but 

 throughout the whole animal series, and even to receive 

 further elucidation by comparison with the functions of 

 vegetable life. It was no less an undertaking, then, than 

 the study of the phenomena of life in health and disease, 

 throughout the whole range of organised beings, in which 

 Hunter proposed to engage an undertaking which 

 required a genius like his to plan, and from the difficulties 

 of executing which, any mind less energetic, less industrious, 

 less devoted to science than his own would have shrunk.' 



It should be added that Hunter, in carrying out his 

 scientific researches, adhered rigidly to the sound rule 

 of ascertaining the facts before he framed any theory, 

 rather than of starting with an hypothesis, and seeing 

 how far the facts could be made to square with that. He 

 not only invariably relied upon direct observation and 

 experiment in the collection of his facts, but he showed 

 himself a master of the art of experimental research. He 

 exhibited, indeed, a real genius, not only in the perception 

 of how any particular problem could be solved experi- 

 mentally, but also in varying his experiments so as to 

 meet the requirements of each special case. In this 



