498 APPENDIX. 



" The greatest part of these papers were in the handwriting of Mr. 

 Bell, who lived fourteen years in Mr. Hunter's house, for the purpose of 

 writing and making drawings*. The cabinets containing the drawings 

 also stood in the study for the sake of making reference to them, and 

 the descriptions of many of them are in my handwriting, copied under 

 Mr. Hunter's direction, a very short time before his decease. These 

 are now in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons. 



" Mr. Hunter kept an account of the dissections of the various animals 

 that came under his inspection ; and whenever he re-examined an 

 animal, he overlooked his previous account, and corrected and added 

 to it. 



" Also an account of all remarkable and interesting cases that came 

 under his observation, as well as others furnished by his friends. The 

 histories of those cases where he had opportunities of post-mortem 

 examinations, were kept separate from those where he had not that 

 opportunity. 



" He generally wrote his first thoughts or memoranda on all subjects, 

 on the slips torn off from the ends, and the blank pages and envelopes 

 of letters. Thousands of these were copied by Haynes and myself into 

 the different papers and volumes; being generally inserted and fre- 

 quently pinned into the place where they were to be written in. The 

 following marks were those he usually employed to denote where these 

 marks were to be inserted : — 



+ X + * ]8(4-=e:^ 



" He appeared to have no desire for preserving his own handwriting, 

 as we always scored these slips across, and returned them to Mr. 

 Hunter, who usually folded them up, and put them on the chimney 

 piece to light the candle with : and the rough or waste copies on all 

 subjects, when copied out fair, were taken into his private dissecting 

 room as waste paper to dissect upon. 



" Had Mr. Hunter's writings been of a temporary or of a private 

 nature, and had he left no collection, without a catalogue, expressly to 

 be sold to the public, then his papers might or might not have been 

 destroyed according to the discretion of his Executors or his family ; 

 but as it was, the public having purchased the collection, were evi- 

 dently entitled to all which could have been beneficially extracted for 

 the description and illustration of the collection which had become 

 their property. 



" Mr. Hunter in his Will, made only six months before his death, 

 expresses, that ' all his Collection of Natural History, and the cases 

 * Mr. Haynea succeeded Mr. Bell in this duty. — R. O. 



