482 
HUN 
ders of nature; there was likewife a large ferles of whole 
animals preferved in fpirits, many of them the rareft ever 
brought into this country. It may well be imagined, 
that a long courfe of years and great expences were re- 
quifite for completing i'uch a colle< 5 tion, which, indeed, 
received continual additions as long as he lived. 
In 1776 he was appointed furgeon-extraordinary to the 
army 5 and in 1778 he publifhed the fecond or practical 
part of his Treatife on the Teeth, in which their difeafes 
■were conlidered. In 1783 he purchafed the leafeof a houfe 
in Leicefter-fquare, to which he removed, and to which 
he annexed a fpacious building for his mufeum, at a coft, 
as fome of his biographers affert, much beyond the dic¬ 
tates of prudence. About this period his faculties of 
body and mind feem to have been exerted to the utmoft, 
and every moment had its full employ. The poll of de¬ 
puty furgeon-general to the army was conferred upon 
him in 1786 ; and in that year his great and long-expefted 
work, On the Venereal Difeafe, 4to. made its appearance. 
Few medical performances have been more read ; but it 
underwent fome fevere criticifms, both praftical and the¬ 
oretical. He alfo publifhed in this year, Obfervations on 
various Parts of the Animal CEconomy, compofed of pa¬ 
pers already inferted in the Philofophical Tranfaftions, 
with the addition of fome new ones. An illnefs with 
which he was feized about this time left his conftitution 
impaired, and efpecially fubjefted him to an affection of 
the heart, which came on upon every violent agitation of 
mind or fudden exertion of body. The office of infpec- 
tor-general of hofpitals and furgeon-general to the army, 
to which he was appointed in 1790, gave him much ad¬ 
ditional occupation, and, with his private practice, took 
up almoft his whole time. He reiigned his courfe of lec¬ 
tures to his brother-in-law Mr. Home, and employed all 
his little leifure in fcientific purfuits. 
A long feries of fpafmodic fymptoms, conflituting what 
is named angina ■pcEiuris , had for fome years been occa- 
fionally haraffing him, and gradually diminifhing his ca¬ 
pacity for aftion and enjoyment. They increafed in vio¬ 
lence from autumn 1790, and to himfelf and others por¬ 
tended a fuddenly-fatal termination. This took place on 
Oftober 16, 1793, when he was at St. George’s hofpital. 
^Something occurring which irritated him, but of the cir- 
cumftances of which he was not perfectly matter, he with¬ 
drew into another room, when, in the aft of turning round 
to one of the phyficians, he gave a deep groan, and dropt 
down dead. In originality of genius and powers of in- 
veftigation, he feems to have furpaffed his brother: in- 
duftry and perfeverance equally belonged to both. Be¬ 
tides the works already mentioned, and his papers in the 
Philofophical Tranfaftions, he was the author of three pa¬ 
pers in the Tranfaftions of a Society for the Improvment 
of Medical Knowledge, of which he was a principal pro¬ 
moter. At the time of his death confiderable progrefs 
had been made in the printing of A Treatife on the 
Blood, Inflammation, and Gun-fhot Wounds, which was 
publifhed in 1794, quarto, under the infpeftion of Mr. 
Home, and contains his fundamental doftrines in patho¬ 
logy and furgery. By his will, Mr. Hunter direfted that 
his mufeum fliould be offered to the purchafe of govern¬ 
ment ; and, after fome negociations, it was bought for the 
public ufe for the fum of fifteen thoufand pounds. Pof- 
feffion of it has been given to the college of lurgeons, on 
the condition of expofmg it to public view on certain days 
in the week, and giving a fet of annual leftures explana¬ 
tory of its contents. 
To his own great abilities alone, Mr. Hunter was in¬ 
debted for the eminence which he acquired in his profef- 
fion ; for, although his medical education, his fituation as 
furgeor. to St. George’s Hofpital, and above all, his bro¬ 
ther’s recommendation, entitled him to notice, yet the 
increafe of his private praftice was at fifft but flow. The 
natural independence of his mind led him rather to in¬ 
dulge in his own purfuits than to cultivate the means of 
enlarging the fphere of his bufinefs; but the proofs 
I-I U N 
which he afterwards gave of his talents commanded the 
attention of the public, and procured him a very liberal 
income. In private praftice he was libera], fcrupuloufly 
honeft in faying what was really his opinion of the cafe, 
and ready upon all occafions to acknowledge his igno¬ 
rance whenever there was any thing he did not under- 
ftand. In converfation he fpoke too freely, and fometimes 
haitily, of his cotemporaries; but, if he did not do juftice 
to their undoubted merits, it arofe not from envy, but 
from his thorough conviftion that furgery was as yet in 
its infancy, and he himfelf a novice in his own art; and, 
his anxiety to have it carried to perfection made him 
think meanly and ill of every one whofe exertions in that 
refpeft did not equal his own. 
Public-fpirited to an extreme, he valued money no far¬ 
ther than as it enabled him to profecute and extend his 
various, and nearly univerfal, refearches; and, hurried on 
by the ambition of benefiting mankind at large, he paid 
too little attention to his own and his family’s interefts. 
But imprudence almoft always goes hand in hand with 
genius; if it deferves a harlher name, let it be remem¬ 
bered, that his immediate relatives alone, and not the pub¬ 
lic, have a right to complain; for, viewed in a profef- 
fional light, and as a man of fcience, his zeal for the im¬ 
provement of furgery in particular, and for the advance¬ 
ment of knowledge in general, to both of which he him¬ 
felf materially contributed, entitles him at leaft to the 
gratitude, if not the veneration, of pofterity. 
HUN'TER’s BAY, or Rigg Bay, a bay of Scotland, 
on the eaft coaft of the county of Wigton. 
HUN'TER FORT, a fort of the American States, 
twenty-one miles weft of Scheneftady, on the fouth fide 
of Mohawk river, at the mouth of Schohary Creek, over 
which is a bridge. Here is an old church built in the 
reign of queen Anne, with a few houfes. At this place 
was the Old Mohawk Indian town, which was abandoned 
by that nation as late as the fpring of 1780. Thefe In¬ 
dians had made confiderable advances in civilization; 
could generally fpeak the Englifn language, and numbers 
of them made profeffion of their faith in the Chriftian re¬ 
ligion. In the church which is now ftanding, they ufed 
to attend public worftiip in the epifcopal form. Thefe 
Indians are now fettled, a part of them on Grand River, a 
northern water of Lake Erie, and a part of them in Up¬ 
per Canada. None of this nation now remain in the 
United States. 
HUN'TER’s RIVER, a river of New South Wales, 
which lies at a fmall diftance to the north from Port Jack- 
From the abundance of coals found on its banks, it 
has likewife obtained the name of Coal River. 
HUN'TER’s TOWN, a town of Pennfylvania, fituated 
in York county: twenty-five miles weft-by-fouth of York 
Town. 
HUN'TERDON, a county of the American States, in 
New Jerfey, bounded north by that of Morris, eaft by So- 
merfet, fouth-eaft by Burlington, fouth-weft-and-weft by 
Delaware river, which feparates it from the ftate of Penn¬ 
fylvania, and north-welt by Suffex county. It is about 
forty miles long, and thirty-two broad, divided into ten 1 
townfliips, and contains 2.0,253 inhabitants. On the top 
of Mulkonetccng mountain in this county, is a noted 
medicinal fpring, much reforted to. It iffues from the 
fide of a mountain into an artificial refervoir, for the ac¬ 
commodation of thole who wilh to bathe in, as well as to 
drink, the waters. It is a ftrong chalybeate. Trenton is 
the chief town. 
HUN'TIM, a town of Germany, in Weftphalia, in the 
county of Gronsfeld : feven miles eaft-fouth-eaft of Maef- 
tricht 
HUN'TING, f. The amufement of the chace; the pur- 
fuing with horfes, hounds, and horn, any of the animals 
of vert or venifon, or the wild and noxious beafts of the 
foreft, dangerous to man, and aeftruftive of flocks and 
herds. This exercife divides itfelf into three bhjefts : 
that of mere amufement 3 that for, the procuration of food ; 
