THE GREAT MUSEUMS OF BRITAIN. 83 



ness. Owing to the imperfection of his early education, 

 he possessed no faculty of verbal expression, and was 

 unable to trust anything to his memory. According 

 to one of his biographers, 'he wrote his lectures on 

 detached pieces of paper, and such was his confusion 

 that frequently he found himself incapable of explain- 

 ing his opinion from his notes; and after having in vain 

 attempted to recall the transitory idea, now no longer 

 floating in his mind nor obedient to his will after having 

 in vain rubbed his face, and shut his eyes, to invite 

 disobedient recollection, he would throw the subject by, 

 and take up another.' A singular contrast, in these 

 respects, were the two brothers, John and William Hunter, 

 the latter having acquired the reputation of being one of 

 the most perfect lecturers and demonstrators that ever 

 lived. Judging, however, from the written copies which 

 we possess of John Hunter's course on surgery, his 

 lectures were strikingly original and suggestive. More- 

 over, he ' loved truth better than system ' an inestimable 

 virtue in a teacher and never hesitated to admit a change 

 in his views, if he had been led by further research to 

 alter his previously expressed opinions on any point. It 

 is said, for instance, that Sir Astley Cooper, who was 

 one of his pupils, once exhibited surprise at hearing him 

 express an opinion directly contradictory of something 

 he had said the previous year, and asked him if he 

 had not held quite a different view before. ' Very likely 

 I did,' replied Hunter; <I hope I grow wiser every 

 year.' 



In 1775, Hunter entertained the idea of establishing 

 a metropolitan school of natural history, but the 



