i86o-6i EDITS JOHN HUNTER'S MSS. in 



' John Hunter's Essays and MSS.,' which Owen 

 edited, are certainly full of interest. Charac- 

 terized as they are by a strange diversity of 

 thought, they give the impression that the writer 

 either did not live long enough to complete his 

 own account of himself, or else that, though 

 possessing endless industry and immense powers 

 of observation, he had neither time nor inclina- 

 tion for concentration of thought. His essays on 

 natural history contain remarks on the classes of 

 animals, on the distinctions between animals and 

 vegetables, the origin of natural production and of 

 species and varieties, and the properties of matter, 

 and so forth. In treating of the origin of species, 

 while he fails to take the extreme Darwinian view, 

 he nevertheless asks : ' Does not the natural grada- 

 tion of animals from one to another lead to the 

 original species ? For example : Are we not led 

 on to the wolf,' he says, 4 by the gradual affinities 

 of the different varieties in the dog, and is it not 

 possible to trace out the gradation in the same 

 way in the horse, sheep, or cat ? ' Beyond this 

 Hunter does not advance. In his 'Observations 

 on Psychology ' the illustrations that he gives are 

 exceedingly quaint. He tells us, for instance, that 

 ' the mind is often in opposition to itself : the state 

 of the mind if strong shall get the better of another 

 state which is weak, or the stronger state shall 

 not allow the weaker to rise ; although the mind 

 is so circumstanced at the time as to have one 



