HUNTER. 



365 



sum which he reckoned an adequate provision for him- 

 elf whenever he should l>e obliged to retire from prac- 

 tice, and resolved to dedicate the remainder of his for- 

 tune to some plan of puhlic utility. In 1765, he pro- 

 jected an anatomical school on a grand scale, proposing 

 to expend fTOOO on the building, and to endow a pro- 

 fessorship of anatomy. He did not however receive the 

 encouragement from government which he expected ; 

 and, though afterwards the Earl of Sherbume entered 

 9 much into the scheme as to offer 1000 guineas to en- 

 courage the execution of it by means of subscription, 

 the doctor's delicacy would not allow him to accede to 

 this plan, and he chose to execute it at his own expence : 

 for which purpose he purchased a house in Great \\ uni- 

 t-nil Street, to which ne removed in 1770, in which he 

 had aa amphitheatre and apartments for dissection, be- 

 sides a magnificent room for a mu-<-iim. Previously to 

 this time he had confined his collection to human, com- 

 parative and morbid anatomy ; but he now extended 

 bis views to the formation of a general museum, inclu- 

 ding fossils, antique medals, and rare books in the 

 Graek and Latin languages. In an account of a part 

 of this collection published by his friend Mr Combe, 

 the expence of it was estimated at i 20.OOO. InlTol, 

 he added to it the collection of Dr Fothergill, consist- 

 ing of shells, coral*, and other curious object* in natu- 

 ral factory, which were purchased for 1300. 



About the year 1773 he had experienced so much in- 

 jury to his health from gout, that he thought of giving 

 op practice, and returning to Scotland ; but prudential 

 imiSsuWatiiJSM, and his attachment to his favourite par- 

 suits, determined him to remain in London. The re- 

 turns of DM disease became more frenuent ; and at last, 

 on Saturday the 15th of March 178?, after having ex- 

 periroced a return of wandering gout, he complained 

 of great head ach and nausea, ami was confined for a few 

 days to bed. He then thought himself so well that he 

 gave his introductory lecture to an intended course of 

 sufgfii ; but, towards the conclusion of the lecture, he 

 faint nf awav, and was carried to bed. This happened 

 on a Thursday. On the Saturday morning he told hit 

 friends, that he had paralytic stroke in the night, 

 though no symptom of it then appeared about him. !' 



r no pain ; and at one time, turning 

 Combe, he said. " [f I had strength en, 

 Isold a pen. I would write how easy aod pleasant adlfaf 

 it i. to. lie." His death happened in ten days alt 



i. on the 90th of March 17*3. His ft. 



D MM! slender, but symmetrical and baw 

 He was an agreeable, lively companion. The 

 nuah in his diameter was an irritability on 

 I subject* which gave his manner an air of ' 



>. He will long be held in high 

 rho, when the limited extent of his means is 

 singular degree to the pro- 

 < present celebrated 

 Dr Raillie, was left the use of hit museum fur life, to 

 be succeeded by Mr < r,,,. ,.'-'.. Dr Hunter's as- 

 sistant, who was to enjoy it for thirty years, and 

 then k was to become the perpetual property of 

 the university of Glasgow. The right of reversion 

 of Mr Cruickshanks was extinguished by the death of 

 this gentleman ; after which I )r Raillie generously give 

 up his daim, and the museum was removed to Glas- 

 gow, where magnificent apartments have been built 

 lor it, and the annual interest of 8000, left by Dr 

 Hunter, is appropriated to the preservation and aug- 

 of it. It has already been enriched with 

 additional articles; and, on the whole, adds 

 to that seminary, and toads to promote the 



resort to it which It has so long and so deservedly aU 

 tracted. (Il.D.) 



HUNTER, JOHN, an eminent surgeon and author.and 

 brother to the subject of the preceding article, was born 

 at Long Olderwood on the 14-th of July 17-8. lie was 

 about ten years old when he lost his father; and.beingthe 

 youngest child, was so much indulged by his mother, 

 that, though sent to the grammar-school in Glasgow, 

 he made no proficiency in his studies, and at last leav- 

 ing them, lived for some time idle in the country. Tir- 

 ing of this mode of life, he wrote to his brother Dr Hun- 

 ter in London, proposing to become his assistant in his 

 dissections ; or, if that would not suit him, to go into the 

 army. The doctor gave him a kind invitation to Loit.lon, 

 and he went up to him in September 1748. The doctor 

 found, on a very short trial, that he promised to become 

 an expert dissector; and, entertaining great hopes of 

 him, gave him every encouragement to persevere in 

 professional pursuits. The following summer he at- 

 tended Chelsea hospital, where he learned the first rudi- 

 ments of practical surgery. By the succeeding winter 

 he had made such proficiency, that his brother lilt in ;i 

 great" measure to him the superintendence of his pub- 

 ->ecting room. In the following summer he re- 

 newed his attendance at Chelsea hospital, and the sum- 

 mer after that he attended at St Bartholomew 'f. In 1755, 

 he entered as a gentleman commoner at St Mary's Hall, 

 Oxford. In 175(i, he was appointed house surgeon to 

 rge'i'hopital, where he had attended as a pupil 

 the two preceding summers. In 17. r >.*>, he was admit- 

 ted to a partnership in his brother's lectures. His un- 

 common dexterity in making anatomical preparation*, 

 and same distinguished discoveries which he made in 

 anatomical science, gradually raised him to great celebri - 

 ty. He traced the ramifications of the olfactory nerves 

 on the Schneiderian membrane ; be demonstrated the 

 mode of termination of the arteries of the uterus in the 

 placenta ; and he was the first who discovered the lym- 

 phatic vessels of birds. By directing his labours exit >.- 

 sively to comparative anatomy, he laid the foundation 

 of his splendid anatomical museum. These labours 

 were not conducted with the deiign of exhibiting pre- 

 parations of the entire bodies of different animals, hut 

 for the more useful purpose of illustrating, in a regular 

 series, the varieties of organisation subservient to each 

 function in the different classes of animals. He appli- 

 ed to the keeper of the Tower, and other persons w h<> 

 kept wild beast*, to procure the bodies of those that 

 died ; and he had generally in his possession living ani- 

 mals of JifsVimt species, for the purpose of observing 

 their msnsisrs and instincts. Two anecdotes are related 

 his brother-in-law Sir Everard Home, that are very 



m* rntnuMa^m in 11)14 MBlUCTUCnt. I wo 



Hunter, 

 John. 



tooDutfuj wnicn be kept broke lootvt on one occasion from 

 tnr den, and the bowlmc of his dogs in the same yard 

 alarmed the whole neighbourhood. Mr Hunter ran 

 into the yard, and found one leopard scrambling over 

 the wall, while the other was surrounded l>y the dogs. 

 thout reflection seized both of the leopards, and 

 led them back into their den ; but immediately after, 

 when he thought of the risk which he had run, as an 

 unlucky irritation on their pan might have terminated 

 in his immediate destruction, he was so much agitated 

 that be almost fainted away. On another occasion 

 while he was struggling with a young hull, a species of 

 amusement in which he had delighted, the /in -mil got 

 him down on the ground, and would have prucce- 

 the utmost extremities, if a person luckily coming to the 

 spot had not rescued him. 



In 1707, be was made fellow of the Royal Society, 



