HUNTERIAN ORATION. 2^ 



light was, to think." Mr. Hunter did not 

 begin to learn anatomy till he was eighteen 

 years of age ; but when the book of nature 

 lay exposed to his view, he read it with 

 facility, interest, intelligence, and dilir 

 gence ; and the idle youth became a most 

 industrious man. Like Haller, he devoted 

 himself to physiology. Such minds could 

 not but be highly sensible of the interest 

 and importance of this study : they could 

 not be contented with the mere notation 

 of facts, without enquiring into their pro- 

 bable causes and uses. Like Haller, he 

 became an exact and comprehensive ana- 

 tomist. No structure, nor substance want- 

 ing*structure, yet possessing life, escaped 

 his strictest scrutiny. Like Haller, he in- 

 vestigated the nature of function by expe- 

 riment, yet how different is the conclusion 

 of the labours and reflections, or the prin- 

 ciples of the physiological doctrines of these 

 ahnost contemporary and very extraordinary 

 characters; — the one enriched from the pos- 

 sessions of all others, and endowed with 

 ^eat degrees of intellectual powers ; the 

 other, rich only in natural genius and talent. 



