vii ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS 75 



great Italian teachers of the early part of the seventeenth 

 century, with whom apparently the art commenced. 



We have in London, as you are all aware, a museum which 

 stands, in some respects, in a peculiar position, differing 

 perhaps from any in the world in its origin, its scope, its 

 method of maintenance, and its relation to the profession and 

 to the State, in which, for very nearly twenty years, it has 

 been my privilege to pass my days. It has occurred to me 

 that a few words in explanation of the history, arrangement, 

 and contents of that museum might add to the interest and 

 profit of those visits which I trust every one here will find 

 time to pay to it during the meeting of the Congress. 



The great mind of John Hunter, far in advance of his age 

 and, it may be, even of ours saw at one glance the vast 

 importance of biological science, and the best means to further 

 its pursuit. To this end he founded his museum, and directed 

 by his will that it should always be maintained in its 

 integrity. Wherever civilised men are gathered together, 

 there are now minds who feel what Hunter felt. The 

 wants of such minds have created in every country in 

 Europe, and the enlightened parts of the New World, museums 

 designed to serve in their different degrees the same functions 

 as our Hunterian collection. Such museums are evidently 

 national needs ; they have already come, though not by any 

 means to the extent they will in future come, to be looked 

 upon as an essential portion of the educational machinery of 

 the State. Suchi museums are, in almost every capital of 

 Europe, supported directly at the expense of the State, or are 

 connected with some great educational institution dependant 

 upon Government for aid. In England alone the need has 

 been supplied first by a private individual, and secondly by a 

 private, or semi-private institution, composed of members of 

 a single profession, with only occasional assistance from the 

 State. In this country the State (and therefore every in- 

 dividual composing it) is indebted to John Hunter and the 

 Koyal College of Surgeons for relieving it of the burden 

 which must otherwise have fallen upon it, of providing that 

 portion of the national education afforded by a biological 

 museum. 



