vii ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS 77 



collection was kept intact, during the six years which elapsed 

 between his death and its purchase by the English Govern- 

 ment in 1799. The preservation of the collection during 

 this period is mainly due to the devotion of William Clift, 

 Hunter's last assistant, whose services were retained for this 

 purpose at a very small salary by the executors, Sir Everard 

 Home and Dr. Matthew Baillie, and whose fidelity was 

 rewarded by his being appointed the first " Conservator " of 

 the collection after it came into the possession of the College 

 of Surgeons. 



The story of the negotiations with a Government whose 

 interests and energies were then concentrated upon the great 

 Continental war, and the answer of the Prime Minister Pitt, 

 when applied to on the subject, " What ! buy preparations ! 

 Why, I have not money enough for gunpowder," are well 

 known. These difficulties were, however, overcome, and on 

 the recommendation of a committee of the House of Commons, 

 appointed to inquire into the subject, the sum agreed to by 

 the executors, viz., 15,000, was voted for its purchase on the 

 13th of June 1799. Then came the question what was to 

 be done with it. There was at that time no department of 

 Government under the care of which such a collection could be 

 placed. The condition of the British Museum has been already 

 alluded to. The now flourishing and all-absorbing " Department 

 of Science and Art " had not been invented. There was 

 one body in London which might be supposed to have some 

 special interest in the maintenance of such a collection, 

 the venerable and dignified College of Physicians, but that 

 body, it is commonly reported, demurred to accept it on the 

 ground of want of funds to meet the annual expense of its 

 maintenance. With reference to this report, Dr. Pitman has 

 been kind enough, in response to my inquiries, to examine the 

 archives of the College, and finds that there is no record of 

 any such offer having been made or refused. If any negotia- 

 tions were entered into, they must, therefore, have been of a 

 purely informal nature. 



There was still another corporate body a comparatively 

 obscure one at that time the Corporation of Surgeons, which 

 had only separated itself some fifty-four years before from the 



