HUNTER, Dr William, a celebrated anatomist and physician, was born on the 23d of May 1718, at Kilbride in the county of Lanark in Scotland. He was the seventh of the children of John and Agnes Hunter, who resided on a small estate in that parish called Long Calderwood, which had been long in the possession of his family. His great grandfather by his father's side, was a younger son of Hunter of Hunterston, chief of the family of that name. At the age of fourteen his father sent him to the college of Glasgow. In this seminary he passed five years, and by his prudent behaviour and diligence acquired the esteem of the professors, and the reputation of being a good scholar. His father had designed him for the church: but the idea of subscribing to articles of faith was so repugnant to the liberal mode of thinking he had already adopted, that he felt an insuperable aversion to his theological pursuits. In this state of mind he happened to become acquainted with Dr Cullen, the late celebrated professor at Edinburgh, who was then just established in practice at Hamilton under the patronage of the duke of Hamilton. Dr Cullen's conversation soon determined him to lay aside all thoughts of the church, and to devote himself to the profession of physic. His father's consent having been previously obtained, Mr Hunter in 1737 went to reside with Dr Cullen. In the family of this excellent friend and preceptor he passed nearly three years: and these, as he has been often heard to acknowledge, were the happiest years of his life. It was then agreed, that he should go and prosecute his medical studies at Edinburgh and London, and afterwards return to settle at Hamilton in
partnership with Dr Cullen. He accordingly set out for Edinburgh in November 1740; and continued there till the following spring, attending the lectures of the medical professors, and amongst others those of the late Dr Alexander Monro, who many years afterwards, in allusion to this circumstance, styled himself his old master.
Mr Hunter arrived in London in the summer of 1741, and took up his residence at Mr, afterwards Dr, Smellie's, who was at that time an apothecary in Pall Mall. He brought with him a letter of recommendation to his countryman Dr James Douglas, from Mr Foulis, printer in Glasgow, who had been useful to the doctor in collecting for him different editions of Horace. Dr Douglas was then intent on a great anatomical work on the bones, which he did not live to complete, and was looking out for a young man of abilities and industry whom he might employ as a dissector. This induced him to pay particular attention to Mr Hunter; and finding him acute and sensible, he desired him to make him another visit. A second conversation confirmed the doctor in the good opinion he had formed of Mr Hunter; and without any farther hesitation he invited him into his family to assist in his dissections and to superintend the education of his son.—Mr Hunter having accepted Dr Douglas's invitation, was by his friendly assistance enabled to enter himself as a surgeon's pupil at St George's Hospital under Mr James Wilkie, and as a dissecting pupil under Dr Frank Nichols, who at that time taught anatomy with considerable reputation. He likewise attended a course of lectures on experimental philosophy by Dr Desaguliers. Of these means of improvement he did not fail to make a proper use. He soon became expert in dissection, and Dr Douglas was at the expense of having several of his preparations engraved. But before many months had elapsed, he had the misfortune to lose this excellent friend.—The death of Dr Douglas, however, made no change in the situation of our author. He continued to reside with the doctor's family, and to pursue his studies with the same diligence as before.
In 1743 he communicated to the Royal Society an essay on the Structure and Diseases of articulating Cartilages. This ingenious paper, on a subject which till then had not been sufficiently investigated, affords a striking testimony of the rapid progress he had made in his anatomical inquiries. As he had it in contemplation to teach anatomy, his attention was directed principally to this object; and it deserves to be mentioned as an additional mark of his prudence, that he did not precipitately engage in the attempt, but passed several years in acquiring such a degree of knowledge and such a collection of preparations, as might insure him success. Dr Nichols, to whom he communicated his scheme, and who declined giving lectures about that time in favour of the late Dr Lawrence, did not give him much encouragement to prosecute it. But at length an opportunity presented itself for the display of his abilities as a teacher. A society of navy surgeons had an apartment in Covent Garden, where they engaged the late Mr Samuel Sharpe to deliver a course of lectures on the operations of surgery. Mr Sharpe continued to repeat this course, till finding that it interfered too much with his other engagements,
Hunter. engagements, he declined the task in favour of Mr Hunter; who gave the society so much satisfaction, that they requested him to extend his plan to anatomy, and at first he had the use of their room for his lectures. This happened in the winter of 1746. He is said to have experienced much solicitude when he began to speak in public: but the applause he met with soon inspired him with courage; and by degrees he became so fond of teaching, that for many years before his death he was never happier than when employed in delivering a lecture. The profits of his two first courses were considerable; but by contributing to the wants of different friends, he found himself at the return of the next season obliged to defer his lectures for a fortnight, merely because he had not money enough to defray the necessary expence of advertisements.
In 1747 he was admitted a member of the corporation of surgeons; and in the spring of the following year, soon after the close of his lectures, he set out in company with his pupil, Mr James Douglas, on a tour through Holland to Paris. His lectures suffered no interruption by this journey, as he returned to England soon enough to prepare for his winter-course, which began about the usual time.
At first he practised both surgery and midwifery: but to the former of these he had always an aversion. His patron, Dr James Douglas, had acquired considerable reputation in midwifery; and this probably induced Mr Hunter to direct his views chiefly to the same line of practice. His being elected one of the surgeon men-midwives, first to the Middlesex, and soon afterwards to the British Lying-in Hospital, assisted in bringing him forward in this branch of his profession, in which he was recommended by several of the most eminent surgeons of that time, who respected his anatomical talents and wished to encourage him. But these were not the only circumstances that contributed to his success. He owed much to his abilities, and much to his person and manner, which eminently qualified him for the practice of midwifery.
In 1750 he seems to have entirely relinquished his views in surgery; as in that year he obtained the degree of Doctor of Physic from the university of Glasgow, and began to practise as a physician. About this time he quitted the family of Mrs Douglas, and went to reside in Jermyn-street. In the summer of 1751 he revisited his native country, for which he always retained a cordial affection. His mother was still living at Long Calderwood, which was now become his property by the death of his brother James. Dr Cullen, for whom he always entertained a sincere regard, was then established at Glasgow, and had acquired considerable reputation both as a practitioner and teacher of physic; so that the two friends had the pleasure of being able to congratulate each other on their mutual prosperity. During this visit he showed his attachment to his little paternal inheritance by giving many instructions for repairing and improving it, and for purchasing any adjoining lands that might be offered for sale. After this journey to Scotland, to which he devoted only a few weeks, he was never absent from London, unless his professional engagements, as sometimes happened, required his attendance at a distance from the capital.
In 1755, on the resignation of Dr Layard, one of
the physicians of the British lying-in hospital, we find the governors of that institution voting their "thanks to Dr Hunter for the services he had done the hospital, and for his continuing in it as one of the physicians:" so that he seems to have been established in this office without the usual form of an election. The year following he was admitted a licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians. Soon afterwards he was elected a member of the Medical Society; and to the Observations and Inquiries published by that society, he at different periods contributed several valuable papers.
In 1762, we find him warmly engaged in controversy, supporting his claim to different anatomical discoveries, in a work entitled Medical Commentaries, the style of which is correct and spirited. As an excuse for the tardiness with which he brought forth this work, he observes in his introduction, that it required a good deal of time, and he had little to spare; that the subject was unpleasant, and therefore he was very seldom in the humour to take it up. In this publication he confined himself chiefly to a dispute with the present learned professor of anatomy at Edinburgh, concerning injections of the testicle, the ducts of the lachrymal gland, the origin and use of the lymphatic vessels, and absorption by veins. He likewise defended himself against a reproach thrown upon him by Professor Monro senior, by giving a concise account of a controversy he was involved in with Mr Pott concerning the discovery of the Hernia Congenita. It was not long before Mr Pott took occasion to give the public his account of the dispute; and, in reply, Dr Hunter added a supplement to his commentaries. No man was ever more tenacious than Dr Hunter of what he conceived to be his anatomical rights. This was particularly evinced in the year 1780, when his brother communicated to the Royal Society a discovery he had made 25 years before, relative to the structure of the placenta, the communication between it and the uterus, and the vascularity of the spongy chorion. At the next meeting of the society, a letter was read, in which Dr Hunter put in his claim to the discovery in question. This letter was followed by a reply from Mr John Hunter, and here the dispute ended.
In 1762, when the queen became pregnant, Dr Hunter was consulted: and two years afterwards he had the honour to be appointed physician extraordinary to her majesty.
About this time his avocations were so numerous, that he became desirous of lessening his fatigue; and having noticed the ingenuity and assiduous application of the late Mr William Hewson, F. R. S. who was then one of his pupils, he engaged him first as an assistant, and afterwards as a partner in his lectures. This connection continued till the year 1770, when some dispute happened which terminated in a separation. Mr Hewson was succeeded in the partnership by Mr Cruikshank, whose anatomical abilities were deservedly respected.
In 1767, Dr Hunter was elected a fellow of the Royal Society: and in the year following communicated to that learned body observations on the bones, commonly supposed to be elephants bones, which have been found near the river Ohio in America. This was not the only subject of natural history on which our
ter. our author employed his pen; for in a subsequent volume of the Philosophical Transactions, we find him offering his remarks on some bones found in the rock of Gibraltar, and which he proves to have belonged to some quadruped. In the same work, likewise, he published an account of the nyl-gbau, an Indian animal not described before. In 1768, Dr Hunter became a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries; and the same year, at the institution of a Royal Academy of Arts, he was appointed by his majesty to the office of professor of anatomy. This appointment opened a new field for his abilities; and he engaged in it, as he did in every other pursuit of his life, with unabating zeal. He now adapted his anatomical knowledge to the objects of painting and sculpture, and the novelty and justness of his observations proved at once the readiness and extent of his genius. In January 1781, he was unanimously elected to succeed the late Dr John Fothergill as president of the Medical Society. As his name and talents were known and respected in every part of Europe, so the honours conferred on him were not limited to his own country. In 1780, the Royal Medical Society at Paris elected him one of their foreign associates; and in 1782, he received a similar mark of distinction from the Royal Academy of Sciences in that city.
The most splendid of Dr Hunter's medical publications was the Anatomy of the Human Gravid Uterus. The appearance of this work, which had been begun so early as the year 1751 (at which time 10 of the 34 plates it contains were completed), was retarded till the year 1775, only by the author's desire of sending it into the world with fewer imperfections. This great work is dedicated to the king. In his preface to it, we find the author very candidly acknowledging, that in most of the dissections he had been assisted by his brother Mr John Hunter, "whose accuracy (he adds) in anatomical researches is so well known, 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." He likewise confesses his obligations to the ingenious artists who made the drawings and engravings; "but particularly to Mr Strange, not only for having by his hand secured a sort of immortality to two of the plates, but for having given his advice and assistance in every part with a steady and disinterested friendship." An anatomical description of the gravid uterus was a work which Dr Hunter had in contemplation to give the public. He had likewise long been employed in collecting and arranging materials for a history of the various concretions that are formed in the human body. Amongst Dr Hunter's papers have been found two introductory lectures, which are written out so fairly, and with such accuracy, that he probably intended no farther correction of them before they should be given to the world. In these lectures Dr Hunter traces the history of anatomy from the earliest to the present times, along with the general progress of science and the arts. He considers the great utility of anatomy in the practice of physic and surgery; gives the ancient divisions of the different substances composing the human body, which for a long time prevailed in anatomy; points out the most advantageous mode of cultivating this branch of natural knowledge; and concludes with explaining the particular plan of his own
lectures. Besides these manuscripts, he has also left behind him a considerable number of cases of dissection; mostly relating to pregnant women. Hunter.
The same year in which the Tables of the Gravid Uterus made their appearance, Dr Hunter communicated to the Royal Society an Essay on the Origin of the Venereal Disease. In this paper he attempted to prove, that this dreadful malady was not brought from America to Europe by the crew of Columbus, as had been commonly supposed, although it made its first appearance about that period. After this paper had been read to the Royal Society, Dr Hunter, in a conversation with the late Dr Musgrave, was convinced that the testimony on which he placed his chief dependence was of less weight than he had at first imagined, as many of Martyr's letters afford the most convincing proofs of their having been written a considerable time after the period of their dates. He therefore very properly laid aside his intention of giving his essay to the public. In the year 1777 Dr Hunter joined with Mr Watson in presenting to the Royal Society a short account of the late Dr Maty's illness, and of the appearances on dissection; and the year following he published his Reflections on the Section of the Symphysis Pubis.
We must now go back a little in the order of time to describe the origin and progress of Dr Hunter's museum, without some account of which the history of his life would be very incomplete.
When he began to practise midwifery, he was desirous of acquiring a fortune sufficient to place him in easy and independent circumstances. Before many years had elapsed, he found himself in possession of a sum adequate to his wishes in this respect; and this he set apart as a resource of which he might avail himself whenever age or infirmities should oblige him to retire from business. After he had obtained this competency, as his wealth continued to accumulate, he formed a laudable design of engaging in some scheme of public utility, and at first had it in contemplation to found an anatomical school in this metropolis. For this purpose, about the year 1775, during the administration of Mr Grenville, he presented a memorial to that minister, in which he requested the grant of a piece of ground in the Mews, for the site of an anatomical theatre. Dr Hunter undertook to expend 7000l. on the building, and to endow a professorship of anatomy in perpetuity. This scheme did not meet with the reception it deserved. In a conversation on this subject soon afterwards with the earl of Shelburne, his lordship expressed a wish that the plan might be carried into execution by subscription, and very generously requested to have his name set down for a thousand guineas. Dr Hunter's delicacy would not allow him to adopt this proposal. He chose rather to execute it at his own expence; and accordingly purchased a spot of ground in Great Windmill-street, where he erected a spacious house, to which he removed from Jermyn-street in 1770. In this building, besides a handsome amphitheatre and other convenient apartments for his lectures and dissections, there was one magnificent room, fitted up with great elegance and propriety as a museum. Of the magnitude and value of his anatomical collection some idea may be formed, when we consider the great length of years
years he employed in the making of anatomical preparations and in the dissection of morbid bodies, added to the eagerness with which he procured additions from the collections of Sandys, Hewson, Falconer, Blackall, and others, that were at different times offered for sale in this metropolis. His specimens of rare diseases were likewise frequently increased by presents from his medical friends and pupils; who, when any thing of this sort occurred to them, very justly thought they could not dispose of it more properly than by placing it in Dr Hunter's museum. Speaking of an acquisition in this way in one of his publications, he says, "I look upon every thing of this kind which is given to me, as a present to the public; and consider myself as thereby called upon to serve the public with more diligence."
Before his removal to Windmill-street, he had confined his collection chiefly to specimens of human and comparative anatomy and of diseases; but now he extended his views to fossils, and likewise to the promotion of polite literature and erudition. In a short space of time he became possessed of "the most magnificent treasure of Greek and Latin books that has been accumulated by any person now living since the days of Mead." A cabinet of ancient medals contributed likewise much to the richness of his museum. A description of part of his coins in this collection, struck by the Greek free cities, was afterwards published by the Doctor's learned friend Mr Combe. In a classical dedication of this elegant volume to the queen, Dr Hunter acknowledges his obligations to her majesty. In the preface some account is given of the progress of the collection, which has been brought together since the year 1770, with singular taste, and at the expence of upwards of 20,000. In 1781, the museum received a valuable addition of shells, corals, and other curious subjects of natural history, which had been collected by the late worthy Dr Fothergill, who gave directions by his will, that his collection should be appraised after his death, that Dr Hunter should have the refusal of it at 5000. under the valuation. This was accordingly done, and Dr Hunter purchased it for the sum of 12000. The fame of this museum spread throughout Europe. Few foreigners distinguished for their rank or learning visited this metropolis without requesting to see it. Men of science of our own country always had easy access to it.—Considered in a collective point of view, it is perhaps without a rival.
Dr Hunter, at the head of his profession, honoured with the esteem of his sovereign, and in possession of every thing that his reputation and wealth could confer, seemed now to have attained the summit of his wishes. But these sources of gratification were embittered by a disposition to the gout, which harassed him frequently during the latter part of his life, notwithstanding his very abstemious manner of living. On Saturday the 15th of March 1783, after having for several days experienced a return of a wandering gout, he complained of great headache and nausea. In this state he went to bed, and for several days felt more pain than usual both in his stomach and limbs. On the Thursday following he found himself so much recovered, that he determined to give the introductory lecture to the operations of surgery. It was to no purpose that his friends urged to him the impropriety of such an at-
tempt. He was determined to make the experiment, and accordingly delivered the lecture; but towards the conclusion his strength was so exhausted that he fainted away, and was obliged to be carried to bed by two servants. The following night and day his symptoms were such as indicated danger; and on Saturday morning Mr Combe, who made him an early visit, was alarmed on being told by Dr Hunter himself, that during the night he had certainly had a paralytic stroke. As neither his speech nor his pulse were affected, and he was able to raise himself in bed, Mr Combe encouraged him to hope that he was mistaken. But the event proved the doctor's idea of his complaint to be but too well founded; for from that time till his death, which happened on Sunday the 30th of March, he voided no urine without the assistance of the catheter, which was occasionally introduced by his brother: and purgative medicines were administered repeatedly without procuring a passage by stool. These circumstances, and the absence of pain, seemed to show, that the intestines and urinary bladder had lost their sensibility and power of contraction; and it was reasonable to presume that a partial palsy had affected the nerves distributed to those parts.
By his will, the use of his museum, under the direction of trustees, devolved to his nephew Dr Matthew Baillie, and in case of his death to Mr Cruikshank for the term of thirty years; at the end of which period the whole collection is bequeathed to the university of Glasgow, with eight thousand pounds sterling as a fund for the support and augmentation of the collection, which is now deposited at Glasgow.
Dr Hunter was regularly shaped, but of a slender make, and rather below a middle stature. His manner of living was extremely simple and frugal, and the quantity of his food was small as well as plain. He was an early riser; and when business was over, was constantly engaged in his anatomical pursuits, or in his museum. 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 with diffidence and candour. In familiar conversation he was cheerful and unassuming. As a teacher of anatomy he has been long and deservedly celebrated. He was a good orator; and having a clear and accurate conception of what he taught, he knew how to place in distinct and intelligible points of view the most abstruse subjects of anatomy and physiology. Among other methods of explaining and illustrating his doctrines, he used frequently to introduce some apposite story or case that had occurred to him in his practice; and few men had acquired a more interesting fund of anecdotes of this kind, or related them in a more agreeable manner.