56 Proceedings of the Newport Natural History Society. 
were, still to keep constantly in touch with natural history. 
He persuaded him to make observations on the temperature 
of animals; the habits, sexual peculiarities, and mode of 
propagation of eels; the breeding of toads; the hibernation 
of hedge-hogs and of bats; the freezing and growth of veg¬ 
etables (I shall speak in a moment of his feeding them with 
the serum of human blood); the parturition of the dog-fish, a 
small shark, which is viviparous; and other then obscure sub¬ 
jects, and asked him to send him salmon-spawn, and the bod¬ 
ies of porpoises and cuckoos, as well as fossils. His interest 
in all these topics was then running parellel, as it did to the 
end of his life, with his devotion to his profession. Hunter’s 
letters were greatly valued by Jenner, and carefully preserved. 
His answers to them were, however, all destroyed, prob¬ 
ably after Hunter’s death, and by Sir Everard Home. 
During 1780-82 he made most interesting tests of the 
serum of human blood as of peculiar aid towards the growth 
of vegetation. In those days bleeding was a remedial 
measure, and there was, therefore, an abundance of mate¬ 
rial with which to experiment. Long afterwards, when his 
son was seriously ill and venesection was thought necessary, 
he poured the blood-serum, as it were a libation, at the 
roots of a favorite willow which, probably planted by him¬ 
self, had become a delightful portion of the surroundings 
of his house. The act was typical both of devotion to science 
and of deep love for his son. The underlying sentiment 
was doubtless a desire to blend two objects that he prized 
indissolubly together. 
In 1786, while visiting a patient, he was exposed to the 
full force of a blizzard, and nearly perished. Of the storm 
and his experience therein, particularly of the intense 
cold, he has left a most vivid description. 
Meanwhile the seed of the vaccination theory, which had 
been implanted during his apprenticeship at Sodbury, was 
still alive in his mind, and slowly but surely germinating. 
In 1770, as soon as he had reached London, he had spoken 
privately to Hunter of the common folk’s saying regarding 
