THE GREAT MUSEUMS OF BRITAIN. 89 



removed from the museum to his own private residence, 

 on the ground that they were in need of arrangement. 

 When, however, the trustees of the museum endeavoured 

 to recover these all-important manuscripts, for the purpose 

 of making a catalogue of the museum, they were not forth- 

 coming; and repeated attempts, made year after year, 

 failed to induce Sir Everard to give them up. Ultimately 

 it was ascertained that Sir Everard Home had deliberately 

 burnt the whole of the manuscripts which Hunter had left 

 behind him, upon the ground that Hunter had not men- 

 tioned them in his will, and upon the unsupported asser- 

 tion that Hunter had verbally instructed his brother-in-law 

 to destroy them. Thus were destroyed all Hunter's 

 unpublished observations. It has, however, been explicitly 

 asserted and there seems to be too good reason to believe 

 that the assertion is correct that most of these observa- 

 tions were published after all, and that they are to be found 

 in the six volumes entitled 'Lectures on Comparative 

 Anatomy ' which were subsequently issued by Sir Everard 

 Home, with his own name upon the title-page. 



Admirable descriptive catalogues of different portions of 

 the Hunterian collection have been published from time to 

 time during the last fifty years, chiefly through the exer- 

 tions of Sir Richard Owen. At the present moment, this 

 vast collection, greatly enlarged and enriched as it has 

 been since the death of Hunter, may be regarded as 

 probably the largest and best series of specimens illustra- 

 tive of comparative anatomy and physiology that has ever 

 been got together beneath a single roof. 



