12 LECTURE I. 



SO great a benefactor to mankind : an event 

 which happened on the 16th of October, 

 1793. 



In the autumn of the year 1776j Sir 

 Everard Home informs us, that " Mr. 

 Hunter was taken extremely ill, and the 

 nature of his complaints made his friends 

 as well as himself, consider his life to be in 

 danger. When he reflected on his own 

 situation, that all his fortune had been 

 expended in his pursuits, and that his 

 family had no provision but what should 

 arise from the sale of his collection, he be- 

 came very desirous to give it its full value, 

 by leaving it in a state of arrangement.'* 

 He therefore was anxious to have a cata- 

 logue made, and wrote a little preface to 

 each department of his Museum. These 

 explanations of his designs ought not, in my 

 opinion, to be published ; for they appear to 

 be mere sketches of what he meant in future 

 to have finished. To these writings, however, 

 I shall frequently refer, because they show 



