294 LECTURE VI. 



prized to find that Mr. Hunter had exhi- 

 bited most of the facts coiitained in his 

 paper on that subject, and several varieties, 

 with which he was unacquainted, but which 

 he deemed worthy of being communicated 

 to the public. Now almost all the prepar- 

 ations in the Hunterian Collection were 

 made before the year 1780, and have been 

 publicly exhibited since the year 1783. 

 We must, therefore, consider Mr. Hunter 

 as the discoverer of all the facts, ascer- 

 tained by his preparations, that were not 

 publicly known before that time ; whilst 

 the open evidence and communication of 

 his labours entitle him further to be re- 

 garded as the prime mover in those inves- 

 tigations, and as the source of that light, by 

 which the subject of the comparative struc- 

 ture and functions of living beings in ge- 

 neral, has of late been so highly illumined. 



