88 NATURAL HISTORY. 



in such a manner as his executors might think best. It 

 was not, however, till 1799 that government could be 

 induced to take the matter up, when parliament voted the 

 sum of fifteen thousand pounds for the purchase of the 

 collection. Having bought the Hunterian collection, 

 government offered it to the Corporation of Surgeons, 

 which in the following year obtained from parliament a 

 royal charter, along with permission to confer diplomas, 

 and which thus became the great corporation now known 

 as the Royal College of Surgeons. The College of 

 Surgeons accepted the charge of Hunter's museum upon 

 the conditions imposed by the government namely, that 

 they should maintain the efficiency of the collection, throw 

 it open to the Fellows of the college at stated times, 

 prepare a catalogue of it, appoint a conservator, and 

 institute an annual course of lectures on comparative 

 anatomy. In this way arose the present magnificent 

 Hunterian collection of the Royal College of Surgeons, 

 and the hardly less famous Hunterian lectures.* 



It was not, however, till 1800 that the College of 

 Surgeons was in a position to take over the collections 

 from Hunter's own museum in Leicester Square, to the 

 temporary buildings allotted for their reception, until such 

 time as a permanent building (for which parliament had 

 voted the further sum of ;i 5,000) could be erected. 

 When the transfer to the temporary buildings had been 

 effected, Sir Everard Home was appointed the first con- 

 servator of the museum. At this period Sir Everard 

 Home ordered that all Hunter's manuscripts should be 



* Two of our most famous living naturalists namely, Sir Richard Owen and 

 Professor Flower have been conservators of the Hunterian museum. 



