July 27, 2025 • 38 mins
Dive into the lives and achievements of doctors who made history in their field. Journey from the inception of the prestigious Edinburgh School of Medicine, through William Harveys revolutionary work on blood circulation, to the advancements in surgery and Edward Jenners pivotal role in creating vaccines. This is Volume 1 of a two-part series.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Section six of Eminent Doctors Their Lives and their Works
Only one. This is a liberywalkx recording. All liberywox recordings
are in the public domain. For more information, ought to volunteer,
please visit liberyvokx dot org. Read by Yoganan Eminent Doctors,
Their Lives and their Work, Volume one by George Thomas Bettany,
(00:26):
Chapter five, William and John Hunter and the Applications of
Anatomy and Physiology to Surgery. It's somewhat surprising that anatomy,
the necessary basis of a sound treatment of the human
body in disease, should have so long remained comparatively uncultivated
in this country as a practical art. After Harvey had
(00:48):
led the way and shown how brilliant discoveries might be
made by dissection. Continental schools certainly put to shame early
English efforts in anatomy, and it would appear not easy
to establish in England any news study unless the subject
is one from which large pecuniary profits may immediately be anticipated,
in which enterprise there can be no sort of merit.
(01:10):
When a man has attained some reputation as an anatomist
or physiologist, All the efforts of British society seemed to
be directed towards taking him away from that pursuit of
which he has proved himself an ornament, and converting him
into a man whose business it is to cure private ailments,
thereby preventing him, but too successfully in most instances, from
(01:32):
pursuing that for which he has shown conspicious talent. Thus
we find Chesldon, whose publication of an Anatomy of the
human Body in seventeen thirteen and Osteography in seventeen thirty
three had shown great anatomical ability, was carried into a
large private practice, and William Hunter, the founder of the
first great Anatomical Museum, was diverted from his proper study
(01:56):
to become an obstitution in order to obtain money for
his si special objects. William Hunter, whose name has been
previously mentioned in our account of Cullen, was born on
May twenty third, seventeen eighteen at kilbrid Lanarkshire, being the
seventh of ten children of John and Agnes Hunter. At
fourteen he was sent to Glasgow for his education, remaining
(02:18):
there five years. It being his father's wished that he
should enter the church. Him by being liberal opinions, he
soon became averse to the proposal, and his intimacy with
doctor Cullen determined his thoughts towards medicine. In seventeen thirty
seven he became Cullen's resident pupil at Hamilton and remained
with him three years. It was then agreed that he
(02:39):
should go and study medicine at Edinburgh in London, and
afterwards returned to Hamilton to a partnership with his master.
Their mutual attachment was life long. The winter of seventeen
forty forty one was spent by William Hunter at Edinburgh,
where Monroe Primus was then teaching anatomy. The following summer
he went to London and obtained the pussy of assistant
(03:00):
to doctor Douglas, who was then engaged on a great
book on osteology, which he did not live to complete.
The education of doctor Douglas's son being also placed in
his charge. He considered this offer so inviting that he
remained in London, although it was contrary to the wishes
of his now aged father, who thought the arrangement of
the doctor Cullen preferable. The father died on the thirtieth
(03:24):
October following aged seventy eight. The man soon became expert
in dissection, and he entered as a surgeon's pupil at
Saint George's Hospital. His prospects were soon after clauded by
the death of doctor Douglas, but his residence in the
family was not interrupted. As early as seventeen forty three
he communicated the Royal Society a paper on the structure
(03:46):
and diseases of articulating cartilages, and thereafter was occupied in
preparing to commence teaching anatomy. His opportunity came in seventeen
forty six when mister Samuel Sharp gave up a course
of lectures and surgery which he had been delivering to
a society of Navy surgeons in Covent Garden, and recommended
William Hunter in his place. His lectures were found so
(04:08):
satisfactory that they asked him to extend discords to anatomy.
He had great timidity in lecturing at first, but soon
gained confidence. One of his pupils, who accompanied him home
after his intelluctory lecture, relates that he carried his fees
for the courts amounting to seven guineas in a bag,
and for his cloak, and that he remarked that it
(04:29):
was a larger sum than he had ever been master
of before the profits of these courses he expended in
no niggardly spirit to a large extent in befriending others,
and he was consequently unable to begin his next season's
lecture at the proper time, owing to lack of means
to advertise his commencement. He learned a salutary lesson by
(04:50):
this delay, for he found that by so fast training
his resources, he had only encouraged the idleness of his friends.
This made him for the future cautious of life, ending money,
and more economical than before, and may be said to
have laid the foundation of his fortune. In seventeen forty seven,
William Hunter was admitted a member of the College of Surgeons,
(05:11):
and in the spring took a continental journey in which
he met Albinus at Leyden. Although he commenced practice as
a surgeon, he gradually discontinued it when he began to
succeed as an aquecher, being appointed surgeon acoitcher to both
the Middlesex Hospital and the British Lying In Hospital. His
conciliating manners and pleasing address contributed to make him popular
(05:34):
in this branch of practice. In seventeen fifty he obtained
the degree of n d from the University of Glasgow,
and about the same time ceased to reside with Missus
Douglas and went to Jermin Street, so long associated with
the Hunters. In seventeen fifty one he visited his home
at long Calderwood, Kilbride, and gratified his affection for doctor Cullen,
(05:56):
who had now become established at Glasgow. As Cullen was
one day writing with him, he pointed out to Hunter
how conspecious was long Caldwood was from a distance, when
the latter replied with energy, well, if I live, I
shall make it still more conspecious. This, however, was his
only visit to his native place after his settling in London.
(06:18):
William Hunter joined the College of Physicians seventeen fifty five
and the Medical Society about the same time. His history
of an Aneurism of the Iota appears in the first
volume published by that society in seventeen fifty seven. In
regard to aneurysms, he had made many original observations, such
as to place the subject in a totally new aspect.
(06:38):
Several papers he contributed to this society paired directly on
problems of interest in midwifery and the diseases of women.
It was in seventeen sixty two that the first edition
of the Medical Commentaries appeared, in which Monroe secondess was
severely attacked for having claimed as his own discoveries which
William Hunter had years before promulgated his lectures. It is
(07:01):
to be regretted that, in regard to these very matters,
as well as others, disputes afterwards arose between William Hunter
and his brother John, who it appears, had made at
least some of these discoveries while engaged as assistant to
his brother. In respect of a number of these, the
elder brother gave credit to his junior both when lecturing
and in his publications. In regard to others, the elder
(07:24):
gave no credit at all when John conceived himself entitled
to much or all of the praise of originality. Both
brothers were strikingly sensitive as to their claims to originality,
and William Hunter, on several occasions seemed to have regarded
a new demonstration as his property because made in his
dissecting room. Though not by himself. Yet we find it
(07:45):
recorded that in the winter seventeen sixty two sixty three,
when the brothers had separated, William Hunter would frequently say
in his lectures in this I am only my brother's interpreter.
I am simply the demonstrator of this discovery. It was
my brother's. We must recur to the subject later, merely
mentioning now that John Hunter acted as his brother's assistant
(08:06):
and dissected for him from seventeen forty eight, and that
from seventeen fifty five to seventeen sixty a certain portion
of the lectures was delivered by him. In seventeen sixty
they separated. There is no question that in general education,
in manners, in delivery, in all that makes the successful
lecturer and the attractive practitioner, William Hunter greatly excelled his brother.
(08:30):
Doctor Bailey has said of him, no one ever possessed
more enthusiasm for his art, more persevering industry, more acuteness
of investigation, more perspicuity of expression, or indeed a greater
share of natural eloquence. He excelled very much any lecturer
whom I have ever heard, in the clearness of his arrangements,
(08:50):
the aptness of his illustrations, and the elegance of his diction.
If it were not for the tenacity with which he
pursued controversial topics and his Unford disagreement with his brother,
there would be nothing to mar the pleasurable nature of
the picture of William Hunter. The way in which he
himself viewed the side of his character may be gathered
(09:10):
from the following extract from the supplement to his Medical Commentaries,
published in seventeen seventy seven. It is remarkable that there
is scarce a considerable character in anatomy that is not
connected with some warm controversy. Anatomists have ever been engaged
in contention, And indeed, if a man is not such
a degree of enthusiasm and love of the art as
(09:33):
will make him impatient of unreasonable opposition and of encroachments
upon his discoveries and his reputation, he will hardly become
considerable in anatomy or in any other branch of natural knowledge.
These reflections afford some comfort to me, who unfortunately have
been already engaged in two public disputes. I have imitated
(09:54):
some of the greatest characters in what has commonly reckoned
their worst part. But I have also so endeavored to
be useful to improve and diffuse a knowledge of anatomy.
And surely it will be allowed here that if we
have not been serviceable to the public in this way,
it has not been for want of diligence or love
of the service. It has likewise been observed of anatomists
(10:16):
that they are all liable to the error of being
severed on each other in their disputes. Perhaps from being
in the habit of examining objects with care and precision,
they may be more disgusted with rash assertions and false reasoning.
From the habit of guarding against being deceived by appearances
and of finding out truth. They may be more than
ordinarily provoked by any attempt to impose upon them. And
(10:38):
for anything that we know the passive submission of dead
bodies their common objects may render them less able to
bear contradiction. It would have been pleasing if we could
have related that William Hunter allowed supreme merit to any
one anatomist or physiologist who preceded him, But we find
him saying about Harvey in merit. Harvey's ranks must be
(11:00):
comparatively low. Indeed, so much had been discovered by others
that little more was left for him to do, then
to dress it up into a system, and that every
judge on such matters will allow required no extraordinary talents.
Yet easy as it was, it made him immortal. But
none of his writings show him to have been a
man of uncommon abilities. Doctor Hunter must have surely been
(11:24):
aware that this was scarping criticism, for on a preceding
page he had spoken of Harvey as a first rate
genius of sagacity and application. The years after his brother's
succession brought doctor Hunter to the summit of professional success.
His obstruate knowledge and skill were known to be so
great that he was called in to consultation respecting the
(11:46):
Queen in seventeen sixty two. Two years later he was
appointed Physician Extraordinary to her Majesty. His increasing engagements soon
left him little time for his dissecting room and lectures,
and he engaged as assistant one of his pupils, William Hewson,
and afterwards took him into partnership in his lectures. But
this connection was severed owing to disputes in seventeen seventy,
(12:10):
and Heuson commenced lecturing on his own account, and achieved
great success, which was cut short, however, by his early
death from fever in seventeen seventy four. Truckshank was a
successor with doctor Hunter, and continued his partner till the
death of the latter in seventeen sixty eight. The year
after his election to the Royal Society, William Hunter was
(12:31):
appointed the first professor of anatomy to the newly founded
Royal Academy, and he entered upon this field of work
with great vigor, applying his anatomical knowledge to painting and
sculpture with his usual success. On the death of doctor Fothergill,
he was selected President of the Society of Physicians now
the Medical Society of London. The most remarkable work which
(12:53):
William Hunter published was a great series of folio plates
of the human gravit Uterus, began in seas seventeen fifty
one and published in seventeen seventy five. In the dedication
of this work to the King, he acknowledged that in
most of the dissections he had been assisted by his brother,
whose accuracy in anatomic researches is so well known. He
(13:14):
says that to omit this opportunity of thanking him for
that assistance would be in some measure to disregard the
future reputation of the work itself. But this acknowledgment did
not contin John Hunter, who claimed the original merit of
most of the discoveries his brother, announced and communicated a
full account to the Royal Society in seventeen eighty, five,
(13:35):
years after his brother's work was published. At the next
meeting of the Society, William Hunter replied to his brother's
claims and John rejoined. The consequence was that the Society
published nothing on the subject, but retained the papers of
both in manuscript. The Anatomical Description of William Hunter's Place
was completed by his nephew, doctor Bailey, and published in
(13:57):
seventeen ninety four. A still more important work as regarded costliness,
was the formation of the museum, which still remains for
the benefit of students as the hunted In Museum in
Glasgow University. Economical from the first as regarded his personal expenses,
William Hunter, after laying aside a sufficient sum to provide
for old age or sickness, applied his thoughts to the
(14:20):
foundation of an anatomical school in London. During mister Grenville's
administration in seventeen sixty five he petitioned him for the
grant of a piece of ground on which to build
an anatomical theater, undertaking to spend seven thousand pounds in
the building, and to endow a permanent professorship of anatomy.
It can hardly be believed that such a munificent offer
(14:42):
was rejected, but it was the middle of the eighteenth century,
and the government pension to doctor Johnson was probably considered
the utmost stretch of public countenance to learning the science.
Lord Shelburne, it is true, expressed a wish that doctor
Hunter's proposal might be carried out by means of a
general subscription, and offered himself to contribute a thousand guineas.
(15:04):
But William Hunter was not the man to depend for
the execution of his projects upon an appeal of this kind,
and he consequently purchased a plot of land in Great
Windmill Street, near the Hay Market, where he built a
suitable house for his own residence, with the lecture theater,
dissecting rooms, and a handsome room for a museum. To
this he removed in seventeen seventy from German Street. He
(15:27):
had already a very large collection of human comparative and
morbid anatomy, which he continued to augment. He purchased all
the best collections of morbid and other anatomical specimens that
were offered for sale, such as those of Sandy's Falcona,
which included Hewson's and Blackall to these were added numerous
specimens of rare diseases presented to him by medical friends
(15:49):
and pupils. We discerned the light in which he viewed
these gifts by the following statement in one of his publications,
I look upon everything of this kind which was given
to me as a present to the public, and consider
myself as thereby called upon to serve the public with
more diligence. And the museum was always open to the
many visitors who were attracted by its fame. Doctor Hunter's
(16:12):
taste expanded. He collected fossils, rare books, and coins. Doctor
Horwarod described his library as including the most magnificent treasure
of Greek and Latin books that had been accumulated by
any person then living. Then. A Thomas even discovered a
bibliographical novelty in comparing two copies of the Aldane edition
(16:33):
of Theocritus, which he found to present material differences, though
representing the same edition. The collection of coins in this
museum was of such value an importance that an illustrated
courtA was devoted to the description of a portion of
them by William Combe. The prephace gives an account of
the progress of the collection, which had now caused no
(16:53):
less than twenty thousand pounds. Another important addition was made
to the museum in seventeen eighty one in the shape
of doctor for the Gills collection of shells, chorals and
other natural history specimens. Doctor Fothergill's will directed that William
Hunter should have the first refusal of the museum at
five hundred pounds less than its value as ascertained by appraisement,
(17:14):
and doctor Hunter eventually made the purchase for twelve hundred pounds.
This noble museum was left by his will not to
his brother John, but to his nephew Dr Bailey, and,
in case of his death, to mister Crookshank for thirty years.
At the end of its time, the collection was to
go to the University of Glasgow. Doctor Bailey, however, handed
(17:35):
it over to Glasgow before the time specified. Eight thousand
pounds was also left to keep up and increase the collection.
Doctor Hunter never retired from practice, although much tormented by
gout in his later years. He thought at one time
of settling down somewhere in Scotland. When suffering more than
usual from ill health, but having found the title of
(17:55):
an estate offered him to be defective, and also having
to provide for his constantly increasing music expenses, he laid
a said his intention. He continued most persiving, both in
his practice and in his lectures, notwithstanding his augmented sufferings,
until on the fifteenth of March seventeen eighty three he
was almost prostrated. On the twentieth, however, he would deliver
(18:18):
his lecture introductory to the Operations of surgery, notwithstanding the
dissuasions of his prints. Towards the end of his lecture
he fainted and had to be carried to bed by
two servants. In the following night, he had an attack
of partial paralysis, from which he did not rally. During
his illness, he said to his friend mister Combe, if
I had strength enough to hold a pen, I would
(18:39):
write how easy and pleasant a thing is to die?
His brother John was admitted to see and attend him
on his deathbed, and no hint of disagreement on these
occasions is given. William Hunter died on the thirtieth March
seventeen eighty three, in his sixty fifth year, and was
buried at Saint James's Church, Piccadillyhunter was of an elegant figure,
(19:02):
slender and rather below the middle height. The portrait of
him by Sir Joshua Reynolds adorns the Hunterian Museum at Glasgow.
An unfinished painting by Zophani represents him in the attitude
of lecturing on the muscles at the Royal Academy, surrounded
by academicians. Hunter's portrait is only completed part. It was
(19:22):
presented to the College of Physicians by mister Bransby Cooper
in eighteen twenty nine. We hear of no matrimonial projects
at any time on William Hunter's part. He was wedded
to his museum, his profession, his lectures. He lived a
frugal life, eating little food and that plainly prepared, rising
early and being always at work. When he invited friends
(19:44):
to dine with him, he seldom provided more than two courses,
and he often said a man who cannot dine on
one dish deserves to have no dinner. A single glass
of wine was handed after dinner to each guest. Some
accused him of parsimony. The truth is that he did
not relish the amusements and luxuries in which most people indulged,
but he was by no means parsimonious as to the
(20:06):
pursuits in which he found a real pleasure. His biographer,
doctor Fort Symons, says, there was something very engaging in
his manner and address, and he had such an appearance
of attention to his patients when he was making his
inquiries as could hardly fail to conciliate their confidence and esteem.
In consultation with his medical brethren, he delivered his opinions
(20:27):
with diffidence and candor. In familiar conversation. He was cheerful
and unassuming. All who knew him aloud that he possessed
an excellent understanding, great readiness of perception, a good memory,
and a sound judgment. Doctor Hunter made no beckquest to
his brother John, but he knew that the latter was
well established unsuccessful. Still, his bequest to the family estated
(20:51):
long Calderwood to his nephew, doctor Bailey, appears not to
have been altogether satisfactory to the latter, who handed it
over to his uncle. John Doctor Hunter left an annuity
of hundred pounds to his sister, Missus Bailey for life,
and two thousand pounds to each of her daughters. Doctor
Bailey was his residuary Legatey. The name of John Hunter
(21:12):
recalls the glories of a great medical school, the labors
of an indefatigable desector, the skill of a brilliant operating surgeon,
and the formation of the noblest of the hunter in
museums that of Lincoln's inn Fields, the richest heritage of
the London College of Surgeons. The youngest son of the
same parents as William Hunter, John was the child of
(21:33):
his father's old age, the latter approaching seventy at John's
birth and February thirteen, seventeen twenty eight. The father died
when John was ten years old, and his mother appears
to have been extremely indulgent to our youngest child, and
so little control his desires for amusements, that he left
the local grammar school almost destitute of classical knowledge, which formed,
(21:53):
of course, the stable instruction there imparted the imperfection of
his general early education was a painful drawback to John
Hunter all his life. There is no doubt that when
about seventeen, John went to Glasgow on a visit to
his sister, Missus Buchanan, whose husband, a cabinet maker, was
failing to get on in business owing to his musical
(22:13):
and social qualities. How far John took part and the
business is not recorded, but it's likely that he owed
much of his mechanical skill to what he learned at
the shop, which seemed to stick to him much more
closely than any book learning. Finding his efforts to relieve
his sister from a difficulties ineffectual, he returned home to
long Calderwood. Missus Buchannan died in seventeen forty nine. We
(22:36):
have extremely little knowledge of the workings of John Hunter's
mind and his youth, or how far he was conscious
of the great talents that were awaiting the appropriate incentive.
His being much given to country amusements is all that
we know. At length. He tired of having no profession,
and his brother William's success attracted him to London. He
(22:56):
begged that he might pay a visit to him and
be his assistant. Anatomy if possible, the request being acceeded
to John arrived in London in September seventeen forty eight,
was at once set to work upon a dissection of
the muscles of the arm to illustrate his brother's lectures,
and succeeded beyond expectation. He was now established in his
(23:17):
brother's dissecting room in the winter, and in the summer
attended Chelsea Hospital under Cheslden. It was evident that John
had found an occupation suited to his capabilities, and in
his second season he was placed in full charge of
the pupils in the dissecting room, while doctor Hunter almost
confined himself to his lectures. In seventeen fifty one, John
(23:38):
became a pupil at Saint Botholomew's Hospital, where Percivalport was
then a leading surgeon. In seventeen fifty four he was
entered as a surgeon's pupil at Saint George's Hospital, where
a chance of surgeency was more likely than at Saint Botholomew's.
In seventeen fifty six he was for some months house
surgeon at Saint George's. Between these two last days he
(24:01):
became temporarily resident at Oxford, where his name was put
down at Saint Mary's Hall, Fifth Jones, seventeen fifty five.
Probably the idea was it he should become a physician,
taking an Oxford degree in medicine. But he was in
no humor to stuff Latin and Greek at the university,
and he never conquered his aversion to classics. Long afterwards
(24:21):
he wrote, jesse Foot accuses me of not understanding the
dead languages. But I could teach him that on the
dead body, which he never knew in any language, dead
or living footnote, Jesse Foot, author of the dfamatory so
called Life of John Hunter, seventeen ninety four. The last
(24:42):
entry of charges were battles against John's name in the
buttery book of Saint Mary's Hall, occurs on twenty fifth
July seventeen fifty five, so that he probably resided less
than two months. His name was kept on the books, however,
till December tenth, seventeen fifty six. The only variation we
hear of in this constant round of work was a
(25:02):
visit John paid to his home in seventeen fifty two.
In seventeen fifty five, John was admitted to a certain
degree of partnership in doctor Hunter's lectures, Besides undertaking a
definite part of the courts, he was to supply his
brother's place when absent on professional engagements. This was a
serious source of discomfort. The younger Hunter's defective education here
(25:22):
became prominent. We may take a description of his style
of lecturing at a later period from his abowed enemy foot,
but it would be well to deduct one half from
it as a product of animosity. In the beginning, these
lectures were written on detached pieces of paper, and such
was the natural confusion of his mind that he would
(25:43):
be frequently found incapable of explaining his own opinions from
his notes. And, after having in vain tried to recall
the transitory ideas, now no longer floating in the mind,
nor obedient to the will, after having in vain rubbed
up his face and shut his eyes to invade disobedient collection,
he would throw the subject by and take up another. Meanwhile,
(26:04):
passing laborious days in the dissecting room, John was becoming
a more perfect anatomist than his brother, and began making
discoveries on his own account, some of which William demurred too.
At first but usually accepted and brought forward in his lectures,
giving John credit for them. Among other discoveries of this
time may be mentioned that of the ramifications of the
(26:25):
nerves of smell in the nose, the unraveling of the
branches of the fifth nerve previously unknown, the tracing of
the arteries and the gravit uterus, and the existence of
lymphatic vessels and birds. Other discoveries made by John Hunter
are described in William Hunter's medical commentaries. But it soon
appeared that the younger brother felt he had not received
a due share of praise and acknowledgment of his sligh bords,
(26:48):
while the elder considered every discovery made in his dissecting
room as more or less his property. John continued to
dissect with an order and perseverance of which there is
hardly any example. His labors were so useful to his
brother's collection, and so gratifying to his disposition, that, although
in many other respects they did not agree, this simple
(27:10):
tie kept them together for many years. Sir e Home
John gradually became led into the study of comparative anatomy,
from finding that structures which were complex in the human
subject were simpler in animals or different in plan, in
both cases throwing light on human anatomy and physiology. Thus
he made the sections of all the common animals, and
(27:31):
always preserved the parts which interested him. He soon passed
beyond the ordinary range and made acquaintance with the keeper
of the Tower Menagerie, that he might obtain the bodies
of such animals as died there. Similarly, he even would
purchase animals, when alive, from traveling showmen, simply requiring them
to bring in their bodies whenever they happened to die.
(27:52):
He bought all rare animals that came in his way.
Others were presented to him by his friends, and thus
an ample supply of material was so cured. There is
some obscurity about the reasons which induced the younger brother,
in seventeen sixty to accept an appointment as staff surgeon
in the army joining the expedition to Bellile in seventeen
sixty one. There is not much doubt, however, that his
(28:14):
health had suffered, and that a foreign voyage and residence
were calculated to restore him. In seventeen sixty two he
was employed with the army in Portugal, and in this
experience late foundation of his knowledge of military surgery. During
this expedition he neglected no opportunity of forwarding studies in
a comparative anatomy and physiology. Thus, when at Bellyle, in
(28:37):
order to discover whether animals in a state of a
hibernation could digest food, he introduced worms and pieces of
meat into the stomachs of lizards and kept them under
observation in a cool place. He found the substances so
introduced and remained perfectly undigested. So, in seventeen sixty two,
near Lisbon, he tested the hearing of fishes by observing
(28:57):
the effect of the report of a gun upon the
inhabitants of a nobleman's fish pond. Retiring from the army
after the Peace of seventeen sixty three, John Hunter found
his place in his brother's dissecting room occupied by mister Hewston,
a most capable dissector and lecturer. Hence he had no
option but to depend on his own exertions, and he
(29:18):
started in London practice as a surgeon in Golden Square.
He found that practice came but slowly, and formed a
class for the study of anatomy and practical surgery to
add to his income, This too, never proved nearly so
remunerative as his brother's lectures, owing to john'st effects of
style and expression already mentioned. His success and practice was
also retarded by his refusal of failure to employ any
(29:40):
of the arts attacked needed to gain personal popularity. Although
he was a good convivial companion at any rate in
his earlier days, any festive enjoyment was always subordinated to
a zeal for a new specimen or a rare case
from which he could learn something. He would take any
trouble or go any distance with these edges in view,
(30:00):
while his feeling about an ordinary case may be gathered
from a remark to his attached friend Lynn, as he
later say the dissecting instrument, Well, n I must go
on earth this d D guinea. Oh, I shall be
sure to want it tomorrow. Mere fashionableness. Hunter could not
tolerate doctor gard Shaw, a physician of the old school,
(30:21):
always formal, polite and well dressed, accosting him one day
in his dissecting room with his usual impressment, my dear John.
Hunter was astonished to hear the mocking reply, my dear Tomfool.
The busy des sector was not likely to value highly
the formalities of the courtly doctor, who has a contemporary remarks,
(30:44):
occasionally looked in, wound up his watch, and fell asleep.
Finding his collection of live animals grow beyond his means
of providing for them in town, Hunter purchased a considerable
piece of ground at Earl's Court, then about two miles
outside London, and built upon it a house with the
lawn behind it, upon and around which he kept a
collection of curious variety, and sometimes under comparatively slight control,
(31:07):
in order that their habits might the more readily be watched.
On one occasion, two leopards caught loose, and one was
scaling the boundary wall, while the other was engaged in
combat with dogs, when mister Hunter, unarmed, went out and
seized them both and replaced them in their outhouse, an
act of courage which, when it was over, nearly caused
(31:28):
them to faint. In seventeen sixty seven, an accident by
which mister Hunter ruptured is tender actualss, whether while dancing
or in getting up from the dissecting table after being
pramped by long sitting is not certain, occasioned him to
study carefully the process by which ruptured tendons are healed.
His method of treating himself was to keep the heel
(31:48):
raised and to compress the muscle gently with a roller,
thus preventing any spasmodic contraction. He divided the same tendon
in several dogs, killing them subsequently at different periods to
examine the progress nature of the repair, and his experiments
and specimens were the origin of the present practice of
cutting through tendons for the relief of distorted and contracted joints.
(32:09):
In the same year seventeen sixty seven, mister Hunter was
selected into the Royal Society before his brother, an evidence
that his eager investigations were already making him well known
to men of inquiring minds. At a later period, he
was one of the originators of meetings at a coffeehouse
to discuss papers before their submission to the Society generally.
In seventeen sixty eight he became a member of the
(32:31):
Royal College of Surgeons, and in the same year, supported
by his brother's interest, he was selected surgeon to Saint
George's Hospital by one hundred fourteen to forty two votes.
He was now in a position in which more patients
were at his disposal for experimental or noble modes of treatment,
and in which he could take resident pupils on advantageous terms.
(32:52):
In seventeen seventy his brother's removal to his dwe premises
in Great Windmill Street led to John's transfert to his
brother's light House and German Street, where he found much
more ample accommodation for his work than he had hitherto
possessed here. Among his earliest pupils was doctor Jenner, who
was an enthusiastic disciple and whom mister Hunter would gladly
(33:15):
have permanently associated with him. He kept up a continual
and intimate correspondence with him throughout life, often asking Doctor
Jenner for information on questions of natural history. Soon after
his removal to German Street, namely, in July seventeen seventy one,
mister Hunter married Anne, eldest daughter of mister Robert Holme,
an army surgeon, father of a subsequent pupil and associate,
(33:38):
Sir Everard Holme. He had been engaged to miss Home
for some years, but financial reasons had hitherto postponed the marriage.
Missus Hunter had artistic, literary and musical taste which to
some extent by the expense trenched on a husband's scientific objects.
She is remembered as the author of the words of
a number of Hayden's English cancer, including the celebrated one
(34:02):
My Mother bids Me bind my hair. Mister Hunter sometimes
found that his wife's friends were too fashionable or frivolous
for his taste, and occasionally his irritation got the better
of his manners. It is related that once returning late
in the evening after a wearisome day's work, he unexpectedly
found his drawing room filled with gay company, walked straight
(34:23):
into the room and addressed the assembly in these terms.
I knew nothing of this kickup, and I ought to
have been informed of it beforehand. But as I am
now returned home to study, I hope the present company
will now retire. Hope speedily realized. Hunter much preferred the
weakly social assemblies at which his scientific friends were welcomed,
and where the conversation was pointed in informing still there
(34:46):
is no groan for reflecting on the gentle happiness of
mister Hunter's married life, of his two children who survived infancy,
He often said that if he had been allowed to
bespeak a pair of children, they would have been those
with which providence had failed him. His wife survived him
till eighteen twenty one, when she died in her seventy
ninth year. Early in seventeen seventy one, mister Hunter published
(35:09):
his first work of any magnitude, the first part of
his tratus on the natural history of human teeth, which
long continued a standard work largely appropriated by subsequent writers.
The second part, treating of the diseases of the teeth,
did not appear till seventeen seventy eight. In seventeen seventy
two he made his mark at the Royal Society by
(35:29):
his celebrated paper on the digestion of the stomach after death,
which he attributed to the action of the gastric Jews
upon the dead tissues. His stores of knowledge and learning
were afterwards made evident by many papers in the Philosophical Transactions,
of which the principle were those on the torpedo seventeen
seventy three, on the air receptacles of birds, and on
(35:50):
the gillaroo trout seventeen seventy four, The Production of Heat
by Animals and Vegetables seventeen seventy five, The Recovery of
Persons apparently drowned seventeen seventy six, The communication of smallpox
with the feet as in neutral seventeen eighty The organ
of hearing in fishes seventeen eighty two, The specific identity
of the wolf, jackal, and dog, and on the structure
(36:11):
and economy of whales seventeen eighty seven. Observations on beest
seventeen ninety three, And on some remarkable caves in Bayreuth
and fossil bones found there in seventeen ninety four. The
titles of these papers, however, convey but a very imperfect
idea of the wide range of subjects treated in them.
When he described a structure, he made it the starting
(36:33):
point of a dissertation, in the course of which he
brought to bear all his vast sourts of knowledge, to
establish general principles or to illustrate important points of physiology.
In the autumn of seventeen seventy two, his brother in law,
Everard Home, became his pupil. He describes Unter's museum at
this time as already having an imposing magnitude. All the
(36:54):
best rooms in the house were devoted to it, and
it was continually being enlarged by his unremitting toil six
or earlier till nine when he breakwusted, Hunter dissected after
breakfast till twelve, he was at home to patience punctuality,
he observed to a fault, he would leave patients at
home in order to start punctually to his outside consultrations.
(37:17):
Four said he, these people can take their chance another day,
and have no right to waste the valuable time of
other practitioners by keeping them waiting for me. He kept
one book at home in which to enter these and
had an exact copy of it always in his waistcoat pocket.
Thus those at home, by referring to the book could
invariably find him. Once his former pupil Klein, having to
(37:39):
meet Hunter and consultration, made a second arrangement, unknown to Hunter,
to take him to see another patient of his immediately
after Hunter's outburst of passion at this unjustifiable disturbance of
his arrangements for the afternoon was with difficulty appeast. His
punctuality at dinner at four was equally settled, but he
strictly ordered that dinner should be served whether he were
(38:01):
at home or not. For many years he drank no
wine and sat but a short time at table, except
when he had company, But he nevertheless pressed the guests
to disregard his example. Come fellow, said he, in his
usual blunt way, to mister afterwards a William blizzard. Why
don't you drink your wine? The guest pleaded in excuse
(38:21):
of whitlow, which coused him much pain. Hunter would not
allow the validity of the plea, but continue to urge
him and ridicule his excuse. Come, come John, said missus Hunter,
you will please to remember that you have delirious for
two days when you had a boil on your finger
some time ago. This turned the laugh against Hunter, who
ceased to importune his guest. The end of section six
Section six of Eminent Doctors Their Lives and their Works
Only one. This is a liberywalkx recording. All liberywox recordings
are in the public domain. For more information, ought to volunteer,
please visit liberyvokx dot org. Read by Yoganan Eminent Doctors,
Their Lives and their Work, Volume one by George Thomas Bettany,
(00:26):
Chapter five, William and John Hunter and the Applications of
Anatomy and Physiology to Surgery. It's somewhat surprising that anatomy,
the necessary basis of a sound treatment of the human
body in disease, should have so long remained comparatively uncultivated
in this country as a practical art. After Harvey had
(00:48):
led the way and shown how brilliant discoveries might be
made by dissection. Continental schools certainly put to shame early
English efforts in anatomy, and it would appear not easy
to establish in England any news study unless the subject
is one from which large pecuniary profits may immediately be anticipated,
in which enterprise there can be no sort of merit.
(01:10):
When a man has attained some reputation as an anatomist
or physiologist, All the efforts of British society seemed to
be directed towards taking him away from that pursuit of
which he has proved himself an ornament, and converting him
into a man whose business it is to cure private ailments,
thereby preventing him, but too successfully in most instances, from
(01:32):
pursuing that for which he has shown conspicious talent. Thus
we find Chesldon, whose publication of an Anatomy of the
human Body in seventeen thirteen and Osteography in seventeen thirty
three had shown great anatomical ability, was carried into a
large private practice, and William Hunter, the founder of the
first great Anatomical Museum, was diverted from his proper study
(01:56):
to become an obstitution in order to obtain money for
his si special objects. William Hunter, whose name has been
previously mentioned in our account of Cullen, was born on
May twenty third, seventeen eighteen at kilbrid Lanarkshire, being the
seventh of ten children of John and Agnes Hunter. At
fourteen he was sent to Glasgow for his education, remaining
(02:18):
there five years. It being his father's wished that he
should enter the church. Him by being liberal opinions, he
soon became averse to the proposal, and his intimacy with
doctor Cullen determined his thoughts towards medicine. In seventeen thirty
seven he became Cullen's resident pupil at Hamilton and remained
with him three years. It was then agreed that he
(02:39):
should go and study medicine at Edinburgh in London, and
afterwards returned to Hamilton to a partnership with his master.
Their mutual attachment was life long. The winter of seventeen
forty forty one was spent by William Hunter at Edinburgh,
where Monroe Primus was then teaching anatomy. The following summer
he went to London and obtained the pussy of assistant
(03:00):
to doctor Douglas, who was then engaged on a great
book on osteology, which he did not live to complete.
The education of doctor Douglas's son being also placed in
his charge. He considered this offer so inviting that he
remained in London, although it was contrary to the wishes
of his now aged father, who thought the arrangement of
the doctor Cullen preferable. The father died on the thirtieth
(03:24):
October following aged seventy eight. The man soon became expert
in dissection, and he entered as a surgeon's pupil at
Saint George's Hospital. His prospects were soon after clauded by
the death of doctor Douglas, but his residence in the
family was not interrupted. As early as seventeen forty three
he communicated the Royal Society a paper on the structure
(03:46):
and diseases of articulating cartilages, and thereafter was occupied in
preparing to commence teaching anatomy. His opportunity came in seventeen
forty six when mister Samuel Sharp gave up a course
of lectures and surgery which he had been delivering to
a society of Navy surgeons in Covent Garden, and recommended
William Hunter in his place. His lectures were found so
(04:08):
satisfactory that they asked him to extend discords to anatomy.
He had great timidity in lecturing at first, but soon
gained confidence. One of his pupils, who accompanied him home
after his intelluctory lecture, relates that he carried his fees
for the courts amounting to seven guineas in a bag,
and for his cloak, and that he remarked that it
(04:29):
was a larger sum than he had ever been master
of before the profits of these courses he expended in
no niggardly spirit to a large extent in befriending others,
and he was consequently unable to begin his next season's
lecture at the proper time, owing to lack of means
to advertise his commencement. He learned a salutary lesson by
(04:50):
this delay, for he found that by so fast training
his resources, he had only encouraged the idleness of his friends.
This made him for the future cautious of life, ending money,
and more economical than before, and may be said to
have laid the foundation of his fortune. In seventeen forty seven,
William Hunter was admitted a member of the College of Surgeons,
(05:11):
and in the spring took a continental journey in which
he met Albinus at Leyden. Although he commenced practice as
a surgeon, he gradually discontinued it when he began to
succeed as an aquecher, being appointed surgeon acoitcher to both
the Middlesex Hospital and the British Lying In Hospital. His
conciliating manners and pleasing address contributed to make him popular
(05:34):
in this branch of practice. In seventeen fifty he obtained
the degree of n d from the University of Glasgow,
and about the same time ceased to reside with Missus
Douglas and went to Jermin Street, so long associated with
the Hunters. In seventeen fifty one he visited his home
at long Calderwood, Kilbride, and gratified his affection for doctor Cullen,
(05:56):
who had now become established at Glasgow. As Cullen was
one day writing with him, he pointed out to Hunter
how conspecious was long Caldwood was from a distance, when
the latter replied with energy, well, if I live, I
shall make it still more conspecious. This, however, was his
only visit to his native place after his settling in London.
(06:18):
William Hunter joined the College of Physicians seventeen fifty five
and the Medical Society about the same time. His history
of an Aneurism of the Iota appears in the first
volume published by that society in seventeen fifty seven. In
regard to aneurysms, he had made many original observations, such
as to place the subject in a totally new aspect.
(06:38):
Several papers he contributed to this society paired directly on
problems of interest in midwifery and the diseases of women.
It was in seventeen sixty two that the first edition
of the Medical Commentaries appeared, in which Monroe secondess was
severely attacked for having claimed as his own discoveries which
William Hunter had years before promulgated his lectures. It is
(07:01):
to be regretted that, in regard to these very matters,
as well as others, disputes afterwards arose between William Hunter
and his brother John, who it appears, had made at
least some of these discoveries while engaged as assistant to
his brother. In respect of a number of these, the
elder brother gave credit to his junior both when lecturing
and in his publications. In regard to others, the elder
(07:24):
gave no credit at all when John conceived himself entitled
to much or all of the praise of originality. Both
brothers were strikingly sensitive as to their claims to originality,
and William Hunter, on several occasions seemed to have regarded
a new demonstration as his property because made in his
dissecting room. Though not by himself. Yet we find it
(07:45):
recorded that in the winter seventeen sixty two sixty three,
when the brothers had separated, William Hunter would frequently say
in his lectures in this I am only my brother's interpreter.
I am simply the demonstrator of this discovery. It was
my brother's. We must recur to the subject later, merely
mentioning now that John Hunter acted as his brother's assistant
(08:06):
and dissected for him from seventeen forty eight, and that
from seventeen fifty five to seventeen sixty a certain portion
of the lectures was delivered by him. In seventeen sixty
they separated. There is no question that in general education,
in manners, in delivery, in all that makes the successful
lecturer and the attractive practitioner, William Hunter greatly excelled his brother.
(08:30):
Doctor Bailey has said of him, no one ever possessed
more enthusiasm for his art, more persevering industry, more acuteness
of investigation, more perspicuity of expression, or indeed a greater
share of natural eloquence. He excelled very much any lecturer
whom I have ever heard, in the clearness of his arrangements,
(08:50):
the aptness of his illustrations, and the elegance of his diction.
If it were not for the tenacity with which he
pursued controversial topics and his Unford disagreement with his brother,
there would be nothing to mar the pleasurable nature of
the picture of William Hunter. The way in which he
himself viewed the side of his character may be gathered
(09:10):
from the following extract from the supplement to his Medical Commentaries,
published in seventeen seventy seven. It is remarkable that there
is scarce a considerable character in anatomy that is not
connected with some warm controversy. Anatomists have ever been engaged
in contention, And indeed, if a man is not such
a degree of enthusiasm and love of the art as
(09:33):
will make him impatient of unreasonable opposition and of encroachments
upon his discoveries and his reputation, he will hardly become
considerable in anatomy or in any other branch of natural knowledge.
These reflections afford some comfort to me, who unfortunately have
been already engaged in two public disputes. I have imitated
(09:54):
some of the greatest characters in what has commonly reckoned
their worst part. But I have also so endeavored to
be useful to improve and diffuse a knowledge of anatomy.
And surely it will be allowed here that if we
have not been serviceable to the public in this way,
it has not been for want of diligence or love
of the service. It has likewise been observed of anatomists
(10:16):
that they are all liable to the error of being
severed on each other in their disputes. Perhaps from being
in the habit of examining objects with care and precision,
they may be more disgusted with rash assertions and false reasoning.
From the habit of guarding against being deceived by appearances
and of finding out truth. They may be more than
ordinarily provoked by any attempt to impose upon them. And
(10:38):
for anything that we know the passive submission of dead
bodies their common objects may render them less able to
bear contradiction. It would have been pleasing if we could
have related that William Hunter allowed supreme merit to any
one anatomist or physiologist who preceded him, But we find
him saying about Harvey in merit. Harvey's ranks must be
(11:00):
comparatively low. Indeed, so much had been discovered by others
that little more was left for him to do, then
to dress it up into a system, and that every
judge on such matters will allow required no extraordinary talents.
Yet easy as it was, it made him immortal. But
none of his writings show him to have been a
man of uncommon abilities. Doctor Hunter must have surely been
(11:24):
aware that this was scarping criticism, for on a preceding
page he had spoken of Harvey as a first rate
genius of sagacity and application. The years after his brother's
succession brought doctor Hunter to the summit of professional success.
His obstruate knowledge and skill were known to be so
great that he was called in to consultation respecting the
(11:46):
Queen in seventeen sixty two. Two years later he was
appointed Physician Extraordinary to her Majesty. His increasing engagements soon
left him little time for his dissecting room and lectures,
and he engaged as assistant one of his pupils, William Hewson,
and afterwards took him into partnership in his lectures. But
this connection was severed owing to disputes in seventeen seventy,
(12:10):
and Heuson commenced lecturing on his own account, and achieved
great success, which was cut short, however, by his early
death from fever in seventeen seventy four. Truckshank was a
successor with doctor Hunter, and continued his partner till the
death of the latter in seventeen sixty eight. The year
after his election to the Royal Society, William Hunter was
(12:31):
appointed the first professor of anatomy to the newly founded
Royal Academy, and he entered upon this field of work
with great vigor, applying his anatomical knowledge to painting and
sculpture with his usual success. On the death of doctor Fothergill,
he was selected President of the Society of Physicians now
the Medical Society of London. The most remarkable work which
(12:53):
William Hunter published was a great series of folio plates
of the human gravit Uterus, began in seas seventeen fifty
one and published in seventeen seventy five. In the dedication
of this work to the King, he acknowledged that in
most of the dissections he had been assisted by his brother,
whose accuracy in anatomic researches is so well known. He
(13:14):
says that to omit this opportunity of thanking him for
that assistance would be in some measure to disregard the
future reputation of the work itself. But this acknowledgment did
not contin John Hunter, who claimed the original merit of
most of the discoveries his brother, announced and communicated a
full account to the Royal Society in seventeen eighty, five,
(13:35):
years after his brother's work was published. At the next
meeting of the Society, William Hunter replied to his brother's
claims and John rejoined. The consequence was that the Society
published nothing on the subject, but retained the papers of
both in manuscript. The Anatomical Description of William Hunter's Place
was completed by his nephew, doctor Bailey, and published in
(13:57):
seventeen ninety four. A still more important work as regarded costliness,
was the formation of the museum, which still remains for
the benefit of students as the hunted In Museum in
Glasgow University. Economical from the first as regarded his personal expenses,
William Hunter, after laying aside a sufficient sum to provide
for old age or sickness, applied his thoughts to the
(14:20):
foundation of an anatomical school in London. During mister Grenville's
administration in seventeen sixty five he petitioned him for the
grant of a piece of ground on which to build
an anatomical theater, undertaking to spend seven thousand pounds in
the building, and to endow a permanent professorship of anatomy.
It can hardly be believed that such a munificent offer
(14:42):
was rejected, but it was the middle of the eighteenth century,
and the government pension to doctor Johnson was probably considered
the utmost stretch of public countenance to learning the science.
Lord Shelburne, it is true, expressed a wish that doctor
Hunter's proposal might be carried out by means of a
general subscription, and offered himself to contribute a thousand guineas.
(15:04):
But William Hunter was not the man to depend for
the execution of his projects upon an appeal of this kind,
and he consequently purchased a plot of land in Great
Windmill Street, near the Hay Market, where he built a
suitable house for his own residence, with the lecture theater,
dissecting rooms, and a handsome room for a museum. To
this he removed in seventeen seventy from German Street. He
(15:27):
had already a very large collection of human comparative and
morbid anatomy, which he continued to augment. He purchased all
the best collections of morbid and other anatomical specimens that
were offered for sale, such as those of Sandy's Falcona,
which included Hewson's and Blackall to these were added numerous
specimens of rare diseases presented to him by medical friends
(15:49):
and pupils. We discerned the light in which he viewed
these gifts by the following statement in one of his publications,
I look upon everything of this kind which was given
to me as a present to the public, and consider
myself as thereby called upon to serve the public with
more diligence. And the museum was always open to the
many visitors who were attracted by its fame. Doctor Hunter's
(16:12):
taste expanded. He collected fossils, rare books, and coins. Doctor
Horwarod described his library as including the most magnificent treasure
of Greek and Latin books that had been accumulated by
any person then living. Then. A Thomas even discovered a
bibliographical novelty in comparing two copies of the Aldane edition
(16:33):
of Theocritus, which he found to present material differences, though
representing the same edition. The collection of coins in this
museum was of such value an importance that an illustrated
courtA was devoted to the description of a portion of
them by William Combe. The prephace gives an account of
the progress of the collection, which had now caused no
(16:53):
less than twenty thousand pounds. Another important addition was made
to the museum in seventeen eighty one in the shape
of doctor for the Gills collection of shells, chorals and
other natural history specimens. Doctor Fothergill's will directed that William
Hunter should have the first refusal of the museum at
five hundred pounds less than its value as ascertained by appraisement,
(17:14):
and doctor Hunter eventually made the purchase for twelve hundred pounds.
This noble museum was left by his will not to
his brother John, but to his nephew Dr Bailey, and,
in case of his death, to mister Crookshank for thirty years.
At the end of its time, the collection was to
go to the University of Glasgow. Doctor Bailey, however, handed
(17:35):
it over to Glasgow before the time specified. Eight thousand
pounds was also left to keep up and increase the collection.
Doctor Hunter never retired from practice, although much tormented by
gout in his later years. He thought at one time
of settling down somewhere in Scotland. When suffering more than
usual from ill health, but having found the title of
(17:55):
an estate offered him to be defective, and also having
to provide for his constantly increasing music expenses, he laid
a said his intention. He continued most persiving, both in
his practice and in his lectures, notwithstanding his augmented sufferings,
until on the fifteenth of March seventeen eighty three he
was almost prostrated. On the twentieth, however, he would deliver
(18:18):
his lecture introductory to the Operations of surgery, notwithstanding the
dissuasions of his prints. Towards the end of his lecture
he fainted and had to be carried to bed by
two servants. In the following night, he had an attack
of partial paralysis, from which he did not rally. During
his illness, he said to his friend mister Combe, if
I had strength enough to hold a pen, I would
(18:39):
write how easy and pleasant a thing is to die?
His brother John was admitted to see and attend him
on his deathbed, and no hint of disagreement on these
occasions is given. William Hunter died on the thirtieth March
seventeen eighty three, in his sixty fifth year, and was
buried at Saint James's Church, Piccadillyhunter was of an elegant figure,
(19:02):
slender and rather below the middle height. The portrait of
him by Sir Joshua Reynolds adorns the Hunterian Museum at Glasgow.
An unfinished painting by Zophani represents him in the attitude
of lecturing on the muscles at the Royal Academy, surrounded
by academicians. Hunter's portrait is only completed part. It was
(19:22):
presented to the College of Physicians by mister Bransby Cooper
in eighteen twenty nine. We hear of no matrimonial projects
at any time on William Hunter's part. He was wedded
to his museum, his profession, his lectures. He lived a
frugal life, eating little food and that plainly prepared, rising
early and being always at work. When he invited friends
(19:44):
to dine with him, he seldom provided more than two courses,
and he often said a man who cannot dine on
one dish deserves to have no dinner. A single glass
of wine was handed after dinner to each guest. Some
accused him of parsimony. The truth is that he did
not relish the amusements and luxuries in which most people indulged,
but he was by no means parsimonious as to the
(20:06):
pursuits in which he found a real pleasure. His biographer,
doctor Fort Symons, says, there was something very engaging in
his manner and address, and he had such an appearance
of attention to his patients when he was making his
inquiries as could hardly fail to conciliate their confidence and esteem.
In consultation with his medical brethren, he delivered his opinions
(20:27):
with diffidence and candor. In familiar conversation. He was cheerful
and unassuming. All who knew him aloud that he possessed
an excellent understanding, great readiness of perception, a good memory,
and a sound judgment. Doctor Hunter made no beckquest to
his brother John, but he knew that the latter was
well established unsuccessful. Still, his bequest to the family estated
(20:51):
long Calderwood to his nephew, doctor Bailey, appears not to
have been altogether satisfactory to the latter, who handed it
over to his uncle. John Doctor Hunter left an annuity
of hundred pounds to his sister, Missus Bailey for life,
and two thousand pounds to each of her daughters. Doctor
Bailey was his residuary Legatey. The name of John Hunter
(21:12):
recalls the glories of a great medical school, the labors
of an indefatigable desector, the skill of a brilliant operating surgeon,
and the formation of the noblest of the hunter in
museums that of Lincoln's inn Fields, the richest heritage of
the London College of Surgeons. The youngest son of the
same parents as William Hunter, John was the child of
(21:33):
his father's old age, the latter approaching seventy at John's
birth and February thirteen, seventeen twenty eight. The father died
when John was ten years old, and his mother appears
to have been extremely indulgent to our youngest child, and
so little control his desires for amusements, that he left
the local grammar school almost destitute of classical knowledge, which formed,
(21:53):
of course, the stable instruction there imparted the imperfection of
his general early education was a painful drawback to John
Hunter all his life. There is no doubt that when
about seventeen, John went to Glasgow on a visit to
his sister, Missus Buchanan, whose husband, a cabinet maker, was
failing to get on in business owing to his musical
(22:13):
and social qualities. How far John took part and the
business is not recorded, but it's likely that he owed
much of his mechanical skill to what he learned at
the shop, which seemed to stick to him much more
closely than any book learning. Finding his efforts to relieve
his sister from a difficulties ineffectual, he returned home to
long Calderwood. Missus Buchannan died in seventeen forty nine. We
(22:36):
have extremely little knowledge of the workings of John Hunter's
mind and his youth, or how far he was conscious
of the great talents that were awaiting the appropriate incentive.
His being much given to country amusements is all that
we know. At length. He tired of having no profession,
and his brother William's success attracted him to London. He
(22:56):
begged that he might pay a visit to him and
be his assistant. Anatomy if possible, the request being acceeded
to John arrived in London in September seventeen forty eight,
was at once set to work upon a dissection of
the muscles of the arm to illustrate his brother's lectures,
and succeeded beyond expectation. He was now established in his
(23:17):
brother's dissecting room in the winter, and in the summer
attended Chelsea Hospital under Cheslden. It was evident that John
had found an occupation suited to his capabilities, and in
his second season he was placed in full charge of
the pupils in the dissecting room, while doctor Hunter almost
confined himself to his lectures. In seventeen fifty one, John
(23:38):
became a pupil at Saint Botholomew's Hospital, where Percivalport was
then a leading surgeon. In seventeen fifty four he was
entered as a surgeon's pupil at Saint George's Hospital, where
a chance of surgeency was more likely than at Saint Botholomew's.
In seventeen fifty six he was for some months house
surgeon at Saint George's. Between these two last days he
(24:01):
became temporarily resident at Oxford, where his name was put
down at Saint Mary's Hall, Fifth Jones, seventeen fifty five.
Probably the idea was it he should become a physician,
taking an Oxford degree in medicine. But he was in
no humor to stuff Latin and Greek at the university,
and he never conquered his aversion to classics. Long afterwards
(24:21):
he wrote, jesse Foot accuses me of not understanding the
dead languages. But I could teach him that on the
dead body, which he never knew in any language, dead
or living footnote, Jesse Foot, author of the dfamatory so
called Life of John Hunter, seventeen ninety four. The last
(24:42):
entry of charges were battles against John's name in the
buttery book of Saint Mary's Hall, occurs on twenty fifth
July seventeen fifty five, so that he probably resided less
than two months. His name was kept on the books, however,
till December tenth, seventeen fifty six. The only variation we
hear of in this constant round of work was a
(25:02):
visit John paid to his home in seventeen fifty two.
In seventeen fifty five, John was admitted to a certain
degree of partnership in doctor Hunter's lectures, Besides undertaking a
definite part of the courts, he was to supply his
brother's place when absent on professional engagements. This was a
serious source of discomfort. The younger Hunter's defective education here
(25:22):
became prominent. We may take a description of his style
of lecturing at a later period from his abowed enemy foot,
but it would be well to deduct one half from
it as a product of animosity. In the beginning, these
lectures were written on detached pieces of paper, and such
was the natural confusion of his mind that he would
(25:43):
be frequently found incapable of explaining his own opinions from
his notes. And, after having in vain tried to recall
the transitory ideas, now no longer floating in the mind,
nor obedient to the will, after having in vain rubbed
up his face and shut his eyes to invade disobedient collection,
he would throw the subject by and take up another. Meanwhile,
(26:04):
passing laborious days in the dissecting room, John was becoming
a more perfect anatomist than his brother, and began making
discoveries on his own account, some of which William demurred too.
At first but usually accepted and brought forward in his lectures,
giving John credit for them. Among other discoveries of this
time may be mentioned that of the ramifications of the
(26:25):
nerves of smell in the nose, the unraveling of the
branches of the fifth nerve previously unknown, the tracing of
the arteries and the gravit uterus, and the existence of
lymphatic vessels and birds. Other discoveries made by John Hunter
are described in William Hunter's medical commentaries. But it soon
appeared that the younger brother felt he had not received
a due share of praise and acknowledgment of his sligh bords,
(26:48):
while the elder considered every discovery made in his dissecting
room as more or less his property. John continued to
dissect with an order and perseverance of which there is
hardly any example. His labors were so useful to his
brother's collection, and so gratifying to his disposition, that, although
in many other respects they did not agree, this simple
(27:10):
tie kept them together for many years. Sir e Home
John gradually became led into the study of comparative anatomy,
from finding that structures which were complex in the human
subject were simpler in animals or different in plan, in
both cases throwing light on human anatomy and physiology. Thus
he made the sections of all the common animals, and
(27:31):
always preserved the parts which interested him. He soon passed
beyond the ordinary range and made acquaintance with the keeper
of the Tower Menagerie, that he might obtain the bodies
of such animals as died there. Similarly, he even would
purchase animals, when alive, from traveling showmen, simply requiring them
to bring in their bodies whenever they happened to die.
(27:52):
He bought all rare animals that came in his way.
Others were presented to him by his friends, and thus
an ample supply of material was so cured. There is
some obscurity about the reasons which induced the younger brother,
in seventeen sixty to accept an appointment as staff surgeon
in the army joining the expedition to Bellile in seventeen
sixty one. There is not much doubt, however, that his
(28:14):
health had suffered, and that a foreign voyage and residence
were calculated to restore him. In seventeen sixty two he
was employed with the army in Portugal, and in this
experience late foundation of his knowledge of military surgery. During
this expedition he neglected no opportunity of forwarding studies in
a comparative anatomy and physiology. Thus, when at Bellyle, in
(28:37):
order to discover whether animals in a state of a
hibernation could digest food, he introduced worms and pieces of
meat into the stomachs of lizards and kept them under
observation in a cool place. He found the substances so
introduced and remained perfectly undigested. So, in seventeen sixty two,
near Lisbon, he tested the hearing of fishes by observing
(28:57):
the effect of the report of a gun upon the
inhabitants of a nobleman's fish pond. Retiring from the army
after the Peace of seventeen sixty three, John Hunter found
his place in his brother's dissecting room occupied by mister Hewston,
a most capable dissector and lecturer. Hence he had no
option but to depend on his own exertions, and he
(29:18):
started in London practice as a surgeon in Golden Square.
He found that practice came but slowly, and formed a
class for the study of anatomy and practical surgery to
add to his income, This too, never proved nearly so
remunerative as his brother's lectures, owing to john'st effects of
style and expression already mentioned. His success and practice was
also retarded by his refusal of failure to employ any
(29:40):
of the arts attacked needed to gain personal popularity. Although
he was a good convivial companion at any rate in
his earlier days, any festive enjoyment was always subordinated to
a zeal for a new specimen or a rare case
from which he could learn something. He would take any
trouble or go any distance with these edges in view,
(30:00):
while his feeling about an ordinary case may be gathered
from a remark to his attached friend Lynn, as he
later say the dissecting instrument, Well, n I must go
on earth this d D guinea. Oh, I shall be
sure to want it tomorrow. Mere fashionableness. Hunter could not
tolerate doctor gard Shaw, a physician of the old school,
(30:21):
always formal, polite and well dressed, accosting him one day
in his dissecting room with his usual impressment, my dear John.
Hunter was astonished to hear the mocking reply, my dear Tomfool.
The busy des sector was not likely to value highly
the formalities of the courtly doctor, who has a contemporary remarks,
(30:44):
occasionally looked in, wound up his watch, and fell asleep.
Finding his collection of live animals grow beyond his means
of providing for them in town, Hunter purchased a considerable
piece of ground at Earl's Court, then about two miles
outside London, and built upon it a house with the
lawn behind it, upon and around which he kept a
collection of curious variety, and sometimes under comparatively slight control,
(31:07):
in order that their habits might the more readily be watched.
On one occasion, two leopards caught loose, and one was
scaling the boundary wall, while the other was engaged in
combat with dogs, when mister Hunter, unarmed, went out and
seized them both and replaced them in their outhouse, an
act of courage which, when it was over, nearly caused
(31:28):
them to faint. In seventeen sixty seven, an accident by
which mister Hunter ruptured is tender actualss, whether while dancing
or in getting up from the dissecting table after being
pramped by long sitting is not certain, occasioned him to
study carefully the process by which ruptured tendons are healed.
His method of treating himself was to keep the heel
(31:48):
raised and to compress the muscle gently with a roller,
thus preventing any spasmodic contraction. He divided the same tendon
in several dogs, killing them subsequently at different periods to
examine the progress nature of the repair, and his experiments
and specimens were the origin of the present practice of
cutting through tendons for the relief of distorted and contracted joints.
(32:09):
In the same year seventeen sixty seven, mister Hunter was
selected into the Royal Society before his brother, an evidence
that his eager investigations were already making him well known
to men of inquiring minds. At a later period, he
was one of the originators of meetings at a coffeehouse
to discuss papers before their submission to the Society generally.
In seventeen sixty eight he became a member of the
(32:31):
Royal College of Surgeons, and in the same year, supported
by his brother's interest, he was selected surgeon to Saint
George's Hospital by one hundred fourteen to forty two votes.
He was now in a position in which more patients
were at his disposal for experimental or noble modes of treatment,
and in which he could take resident pupils on advantageous terms.
(32:52):
In seventeen seventy his brother's removal to his dwe premises
in Great Windmill Street led to John's transfert to his
brother's light House and German Street, where he found much
more ample accommodation for his work than he had hitherto
possessed here. Among his earliest pupils was doctor Jenner, who
was an enthusiastic disciple and whom mister Hunter would gladly
(33:15):
have permanently associated with him. He kept up a continual
and intimate correspondence with him throughout life, often asking Doctor
Jenner for information on questions of natural history. Soon after
his removal to German Street, namely, in July seventeen seventy one,
mister Hunter married Anne, eldest daughter of mister Robert Holme,
an army surgeon, father of a subsequent pupil and associate,
(33:38):
Sir Everard Holme. He had been engaged to miss Home
for some years, but financial reasons had hitherto postponed the marriage.
Missus Hunter had artistic, literary and musical taste which to
some extent by the expense trenched on a husband's scientific objects.
She is remembered as the author of the words of
a number of Hayden's English cancer, including the celebrated one
(34:02):
My Mother bids Me bind my hair. Mister Hunter sometimes
found that his wife's friends were too fashionable or frivolous
for his taste, and occasionally his irritation got the better
of his manners. It is related that once returning late
in the evening after a wearisome day's work, he unexpectedly
found his drawing room filled with gay company, walked straight
(34:23):
into the room and addressed the assembly in these terms.
I knew nothing of this kickup, and I ought to
have been informed of it beforehand. But as I am
now returned home to study, I hope the present company
will now retire. Hope speedily realized. Hunter much preferred the
weakly social assemblies at which his scientific friends were welcomed,
and where the conversation was pointed in informing still there
(34:46):
is no groan for reflecting on the gentle happiness of
mister Hunter's married life, of his two children who survived infancy,
He often said that if he had been allowed to
bespeak a pair of children, they would have been those
with which providence had failed him. His wife survived him
till eighteen twenty one, when she died in her seventy
ninth year. Early in seventeen seventy one, mister Hunter published
(35:09):
his first work of any magnitude, the first part of
his tratus on the natural history of human teeth, which
long continued a standard work largely appropriated by subsequent writers.
The second part, treating of the diseases of the teeth,
did not appear till seventeen seventy eight. In seventeen seventy
two he made his mark at the Royal Society by
(35:29):
his celebrated paper on the digestion of the stomach after death,
which he attributed to the action of the gastric Jews
upon the dead tissues. His stores of knowledge and learning
were afterwards made evident by many papers in the Philosophical Transactions,
of which the principle were those on the torpedo seventeen
seventy three, on the air receptacles of birds, and on
(35:50):
the gillaroo trout seventeen seventy four, The Production of Heat
by Animals and Vegetables seventeen seventy five, The Recovery of
Persons apparently drowned seventeen seventy six, The communication of smallpox
with the feet as in neutral seventeen eighty The organ
of hearing in fishes seventeen eighty two, The specific identity
of the wolf, jackal, and dog, and on the structure
(36:11):
and economy of whales seventeen eighty seven. Observations on beest
seventeen ninety three, And on some remarkable caves in Bayreuth
and fossil bones found there in seventeen ninety four. The
titles of these papers, however, convey but a very imperfect
idea of the wide range of subjects treated in them.
When he described a structure, he made it the starting
(36:33):
point of a dissertation, in the course of which he
brought to bear all his vast sourts of knowledge, to
establish general principles or to illustrate important points of physiology.
In the autumn of seventeen seventy two, his brother in law,
Everard Home, became his pupil. He describes Unter's museum at
this time as already having an imposing magnitude. All the
(36:54):
best rooms in the house were devoted to it, and
it was continually being enlarged by his unremitting toil six
or earlier till nine when he breakwusted, Hunter dissected after
breakfast till twelve, he was at home to patience punctuality,
he observed to a fault, he would leave patients at
home in order to start punctually to his outside consultrations.
(37:17):
Four said he, these people can take their chance another day,
and have no right to waste the valuable time of
other practitioners by keeping them waiting for me. He kept
one book at home in which to enter these and
had an exact copy of it always in his waistcoat pocket.
Thus those at home, by referring to the book could
invariably find him. Once his former pupil Klein, having to
(37:39):
meet Hunter and consultration, made a second arrangement, unknown to Hunter,
to take him to see another patient of his immediately
after Hunter's outburst of passion at this unjustifiable disturbance of
his arrangements for the afternoon was with difficulty appeast. His
punctuality at dinner at four was equally settled, but he
strictly ordered that dinner should be served whether he were
(38:01):
at home or not. For many years he drank no
wine and sat but a short time at table, except
when he had company, But he nevertheless pressed the guests
to disregard his example. Come fellow, said he, in his
usual blunt way, to mister afterwards a William blizzard. Why
don't you drink your wine? The guest pleaded in excuse
(38:21):
of whitlow, which coused him much pain. Hunter would not
allow the validity of the plea, but continue to urge
him and ridicule his excuse. Come, come John, said missus Hunter,
you will please to remember that you have delirious for
two days when you had a boil on your finger
some time ago. This turned the laugh against Hunter, who
ceased to importune his guest. The end of section six
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!