204 
Facts and Observations. 
POSTHUMOUS HONOURS.—REINTERMENT OF THE REMAINS 
OF JOHN HUNTER. —MONUMENT TO HJS MEMORY — 
ALSO TO HARVEY. 
In an early number of our Journal we expressed a dislike 
to posthumous honours. Circumstances, however, may 
arise that seem to demand them; and such appears to be the 
case at the present time in reference to two of the greatest 
men of this country connected with the science of medicine 
— Hunter and Harvey". 
A modern writer, adverting to this subject generally, says, 
« We are living, it would seem, in a time of retributions. The 
age which has been characterised as emphatically the age of 
practical applications, has an ear and a heart, it is found, 
open to sentimental ones. That science to which the world 
of our day has so largely surrendered itself is not, after all, the 
cold, ungenial spirit which it was a fashion once to call her. 
In her search over the field of fact she comes now and then, 
we see, on a neglected grave, and by its side she takes a 
reverent stand. In the very whirl of her rush over the pre¬ 
sent she will pause to restore, with pious hand, some 
fading inscription of the past. This busy period of ours 
finds leisure for the verification of old titles and the redress 
of posthumous wrongs. 5 ’ 
The medical and other periodicals have announced the fact 
that in March 28th the remains of John Hunter, after reposing 
since 1793 in the vaults of St. Martin’s-in-the-Fields, were 
reinterred within the precincts of Westminster Abbey, on 
the north side of the nave, at the feet of Ben Jonson, and 
side by side with the late Sir Robert Wilson, the once popular 
representative of Southwark and the chivalric defender of 
Queen Caroline. The reinterment took place immediately 
after the afternoon service, the anthem of which was most 
happily chosen for the occasion. It was, “When my ears 
heard him, then they blessed him ; and when my eyes saw 
him, they bore witness of him. Now his body is buried in 
peace, but his name liveth evermore.’ 5 After the service the 
trustees of the Museum, the president and council of the 
College of Physicians, the president and council of the College 
of Surgeons, and several of the most eminent members of 
the medical profession, proceeded with the Dean of West¬ 
minster to the Jerusalem Chamber (the remains having been 
