A HISTORY OF SCIENCE 



of great service to the medical profession. This im- 

 portant net-work of minute vessels distributed through- 

 out the body had recently been made the object of much 

 study, and various students, including Haller, had made 

 extensive investigations since their discovery by Asellius. 

 But Hunter, in 1758, was the first to discover the lym- 

 phatics in the neck of birds, although it was his brother 

 William who advanced the theory that the function of 

 these vessels was that of absorbents. One of John Hun- 

 ter's pupils, William Hewson (1739-1774), first gave 

 an account, in 1768, of the lymphatics in reptiles and 

 fishes, and added to his teacher's investigations of the 

 lymphatics in birds. These studies of the lymphatics 

 have been regarded, perhaps with justice, as Hunter's 

 most valuable contributions to practical medicine. 



In 1 767 he met with an accident by which he suffered 

 a rupture of the tendo Achillis the large tendon that 

 forms the attachment of the muscles of the calf to the 

 heel. From observations of this accident, and sub- 

 sequent experiments upon dogs, he laid the foundation 

 for the now simple and effective operation for the cure 

 of club feet and other deformities involving the ten- 

 dons. In 1772 he moved into his residence at Earls- 

 court, Brompton, where he gathered about him a 

 great menagerie of animals, birds, reptiles, insects, 

 and fishes, which he used in his physiological and sur- 

 gical experiments. Here he performed a countless 

 number of experiments more, probably, than "any 

 man engaged in professional practice has ever conduct- 

 ed." These experiments varied in nature from ob- 

 servations of the habits of bees and wasps to major 

 surgical operations performed upon hedgehogs, dogs, 



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