528 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



— poor and very ill-favoured and lean -fleshed, such as I never saw 

 in all the land of Egypt for badness"; while to the people round 

 Golden Square, where he pitched his camp, "he was a zealous 

 student of the human body, who might or might not restore you 

 to health, but would certainly wish to anatomize you if he failed." 



From a perusal of some of his letters — of which there are 

 many, perhaps too many, printed — we seem to have lost the great 

 surgeon, and to be reading the queries of a Gilbert White and the 

 requests of an omnivorous collector. " In his old age, full of 

 suffering, overworked, and close to death, he was yet writing to 

 Africa for swallows, ostrich-eggs, a camel, cuckoos, a young lion, 

 everything respecting the bee tribe, chameleons, and any other 

 beast or bird." There was something magnificent in the way 

 he purchased for his collection ; he simply spent all he had in 

 acquisitions. Ordinary people will call this improvidence, but 

 ordinary people do not form scientific collections or create 

 museums. Nemesis, however, spares not the man of lofty ideal, 

 and Hunter had his distressing thoughts. " He had saved no 

 income for his wife and children, and he could not insure his 

 life ; his museum must be sold to keep them after he was dead, 

 or, if not sold to Government, then brought under the hammer ; 

 and the greater part of his writings was still in manuscript." 

 Angina tortured him during his last years, but he received the 

 mercy of a sudden death. 



Two of his expressions will well bear repetition. " Never ask 

 me what I have said, or what I have written ; but if you will ask 

 me what my present opinions are, I will tell you." The other 

 relates to an experience on the hedgehog by Jenner. "I think 

 your solution is just; but why think ? why not try the experi- 

 ment?" Under the immortal fame of the great surgeon and 

 anatomist lies buried a real and enthusiastic naturalist. 



