vii ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS 81 



external form, or awaiting leisure for examination ; calculi and 

 various animal concretions ; even a collection of microscopic 

 objects, prepared by one of the earliest English histologists, 

 W. Hewson. 



It is very difficult to compare the present Hunterian 

 Museum, as it is still often called, although officially only 

 recognised as the Museum of the Koyal College of Surgeons of 

 England, with any other existing collection, as its nature and 

 the character of its contents have been determined by several 

 accidental circumstances rather than by any very settled 

 purpose. Originally a private collection, embracing a large 

 variety of objects, it has been carried on and increased upon 

 much the same plan as that designed by the founder, with 

 modifications only to suit some of the requirements of advanc- 

 ing knowledge. The only portions of Hunter's biological 

 collection which have been actually parted with are the stuffed 

 birds and beasts, which, with the sanction of the trustees 

 appointed by Government to see that the College performs its 

 part of the contract as custodians of the collection, were 

 transferred to the British Museum, and a considerable number 

 of dried vascular preparations, which having become useless in 

 consequence of the deterioration in their condition, resulting 

 from age and decay, have been replaced by others preserved 

 by better methods. Of the various departments of which the 

 museum now consists, very few, in fact only the collection of 

 illustrations of skin diseases, and the collection of surgical 

 instruments, are not the direct continuation of series founded 

 by John Hunter. * 



To find an analogous institution to the Museum of our 

 College of Surgeons, in Paris, for instance, we should have 

 to combine the collections of Comparative Anatomy and 

 Anthropology at the Jardin des Plantes, and even a portion 

 of the separate palaeontological collection at that establish- 

 ment, the collection of human anatomy of the Musee Orfila, 

 and that of pathological anatomy of the Musee Dupuytren. 

 If these were all brought together under one roof, and some- 

 what compressed and rearranged, we should have something 

 in its nature resembling the museum of which I am now 

 speaking. 



G 



