1843-44 
JOHN HUNTER 
213 
‘ 28 ^/ 1 . — Characteristic letter from Sedgwick, 
asking us to hurry up Scharf with his drawing 
by scratching him with a mylodon’s claw.’ 
At the end of March Owen began his new 
series of Hunterian Lectures. He describes the 
scheme of these lectures in the following way : — 
‘ When I was first honoured by the Council 
with this arduous and responsible office, it seemed 
to me that the first obligation upon the Professor 
Was, to combine with the information to be im- 
parted on the science of comparative anatomy, 
an adequate demonstration of the nature and 
Extent of the Hunterian Physiological Collection, 
and thus to offer a due tribute to the scientific 
labours and discoveries of its founder. 
‘The system adopted by Hunter for the ar- 
rangement of his preparations of comparative 
anatomy was therefore made that of the lectures 
which were to be illustrated by them ; and this 
plan was closely adhered to until the whole of the 
physiological department of the collection had 
l^^en successively described, and its demonstration 
Completed, in the course of lectures which I 
delivered last year. It is, I believe, generally 
known that Hunter had arranged his beautifully 
prepared specimens of animal and vegetable 
^rructures according to the organs, commencing 
'''ith the simplest form, and proceeding through 
^riccessive gradations to the highest or most 
complicated condition of each organ. 
