(John), the celebrated surgeon, was the youngest child of John Hunter of Kilbride, in the county of Lanark. He was born on the 14th of July 1728, at Long Calderwood, a small estate belonging to the family; and losing his father when he was about ten years of age, he was, perhaps, too much indulged by his mother. One consequence of this was, that at the grammar-school he made no progress in learning; and he may be said to have been almost totally illiterate when, in September 1748, he arrived in London. His brother, Dr William Hunter, of whom an account is given in the Encyclopedia, was then the most celebrated teacher of anatomy, and John had expressed a desire to assist him in his researches. The Doctor, who was very desirous to serve him, and anxious to form some opinion of his talents for anatomy, gave him an arm to dissect for the muscles, with the necessary directions how it was to be done; and he found the performance such as greatly exceeded his expectation.
His first essay in anatomy having thus gained him some credit, Mr Hunter was now employed in a dissection of a more difficult nature; this was an arm in which all the arteries were injected, and these, as well as the muscles, were to be exposed and preserved. The manner in which this was performed, gave Dr Hunter so much satisfaction, that he did not scruple to say, that his brother would become a good anatomist, and that he should not want for employment. From this period we may consider Mr Hunter as having seriously engaged in anatomy; and under the instructions of Dr Hunter, and his assistant Mr Symonds, he had every opportunity of improvement, as all the dissections at this time carried on in London were confined to that school.
In the summer 1749, Mr Chevedden, at the request of Dr Hunter, permitted him to attend at Chelsea Hospital; and he there learned the first rudiments of surgery.
The following winter he was so far advanced in the knowledge of human anatomy, as to instruct the pupils in dissection, to whom Dr Hunter had very little time to pay attention. This office, therefore, fell almost entirely upon him, and was his constant employment during the winter season.
In the summer months of 1750, Mr Hunter attended the hospital at Chelsea; in 1751, he became a pupil at St Bartholomew's, and in the winter was present at operations occasionally, whenever anything extraordinary occurred. The following summer he went to Scotland; and in 1753 entered, it is difficult to conceive what reason, as a gentleman commoner at St Mary hall, Oxford. In 1754 he became a surgeon's pupil at St George's hospital, where he continued during the summer months; and in 1756 was appointed house-surgeon.
In the winter 1755, Dr Hunter admitted him to a partnership in his lectures, and a certain portion of the course was allotted to him; besides which, he gave lectures when the Doctor was called away to attend his patients. Making anatomical preparations was at this time a new art, and very little known; every preparation, therefore, that was skilfully made, became an object of admiration; many were wanting for the use of the lectures; and the Doctor being himself an enthusiast for the art, left no means untried to infuse into his brother a love for his favourite pursuits. How well he succeeded, the collection afterwards made by Mr Hunter will sufficiently evince.
Anatomy seems to have been a pursuit for which Mr Hunter's mind was peculiarly fitted, and he applied to it with an ardour and perseverance of which there is hardly any example. His labours 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 tie kept them together for many years.
Mr Hunter worked for ten years on human anatomy, during which period he made himself master of what was already known, as well as made some addition to that knowledge. He traced the ramifications of the olfactory nerves upon the membranes of the nose, and discovered the course of some of the branches of the fifth pair of nerves. In the gravid uterus, he traced the arteries of the uterus to their termination in the placenta. He was also the first who discovered the existence of the lymphatic vessels in birds.
Many parts of the human body being so complex, that their structure could not be understood, nor their uses ascertained, Mr Hunter was led to examine similar parts in other animals, in which the structure was more simple, and more within the reach of investigation; this carried him into a wide field, and laid the foundation of his collection in comparative anatomy.
In this new line of pursuit, this active inquirer began with the more common animals, and preserved such parts as appeared by their analogy, or in some other way, to elucidate the human economy. It was not his intention
age, used for a year this receipt, given to me by an ancient hermit, whom I never saw before nor since; and was not only cured, but recovered my strength, and appeared to all so remarkably beautiful, that the king of Poland asked me in marriage, he being a widower and I a widow. I, however, refused him for the love of my Lord Jesus Christ, from one of whose angels, I believe, I received the remedy. The receipt is as follows:
"R. Take of aqua vitae, four times distilled, three parts, and of the tops and flowers of rosemary two parts: put these together in a close vessel, let them stand in a gentle heat 50 hours, and then distil them. Take one dram of this in the morning once every week, either in your food or drink, and let your face and the diseased limb be washed with it every morning.
"It renovates the strength, brightens the spirits, purifies the marrow and nerves, restores and preserves the sight, and prolongs life." Thus far from the Breviary. Then follows a confirmation which Prevot gives from his own experience. intention to make dissections of particular animals, but to institute an inquiry into the various organizations by which the functions of life are performed, that he might thereby acquire some knowledge of general principles.
So eagerly did Mr Hunter attach himself to comparative anatomy, that he sought by every means in his power the opportunities of prosecuting it with advantage. He applied to the keeper of wild beasts in the Tower for the bodies of those which died there; and he made similar applications to the men who showed wild beasts. He purchased all rare animals which came in his way; and these, with such others as were presented to him by his friends, he entrusted to the showmen to keep till they died, the better to encourage them to assist him in his labours.
His health was so much impaired by excessive attention to his pursuits, that in the year 1760 he was advised to go abroad, having complaints in his breast, which threatened to be consumptive. In October of that year, Mr Adair, inspector-general of hospitals, appointed him a surgeon on the staff; and in the following spring he went with the army to Belliflise, leaving Mr Hewson to assist his brother during his absence.
Mr Hunter served, while the war continued, as senior surgeon on the staff, both in Belliflise and Portugal, till the year 1763; and in that period acquired his knowledge of gun-shot wounds. On his return to England he settled in London; where, not finding the emoluments from his half-pay and private practice sufficient to support him, he taught practical anatomy and operative surgery for several winters. He returned also, with unabated ardour, to comparative anatomy; and as his experiments could not be carried on in a large town, he purchased for that purpose, about two miles from London, a piece of ground near Brompton, at a place called Earl's Court, on which he built a house. In the course of his inquiries, this excellent anatomist ascertained the changes which animal and vegetable substances undergo in the stomach when acted on by the gastric juice; he discovered, by means of feeding young animals with madder (which tinged growing bones red), the mode in which a bone retains its shape during its growth; and explained the process of exfoliation, by which a dead piece of bone is separated from the living.
His fondness for animals made him keep several of different kinds in his house, which by attention he rendered familiar with him, and amused himself by observing their peculiar habits and instincts; but this familiarity was attended with considerable risk, and sometimes led him into situations of danger, of which the following is a remarkable instance:
Two leopards, which were kept chained in an out-house, had broken from their confinement, and got into the yard among some dogs, which they immediately attacked; the howling this produced alarmed the whole neighbourhood; Mr Hunter ran into the yard to see what was the matter, and found one of them getting up the wall to make his escape, the other surrounded by the dogs; he immediately laid hold of them both, and carried them back to their den; but as soon as they were secured, and he had time to reflect upon the risk of his own situation, he was so much agitated, that he was in danger of fainting.
On the fifth of February 1767, he was chosen a fellow of the Royal Society. His desire for improvement in those branches of knowledge which might assist in his researches, led him at this time to propose to Dr George Fordyce and Mr Cumming, an eminent mechanic, that they should adjourn from the meetings of the Royal Society to some coffee-house, and discuss such subjects as were connected with science. This plan was no sooner established, than they found their numbers increased; they were joined by Sir Joseph Banks, Dr Solander, Dr Makelyne, Sir George Shuckburgh, Sir Harry Englefield, Sir Charles Blagden, Dr Nootho, Mr Ramsden, Mr Watt of Birmingham, and many others. At these meetings discoveries and improvements in different branches of philosophy were the objects of their consideration; and the works of the members were read over and criticised before they were given to the public. It was in this year that, by an exertion in dancing, after the muscles of the leg were fatigued, he broke his tendo achillis. This accident, and the confinement in consequence of it, led him to pay attention to the subject of broken tendons, and to make a series of experiments to ascertain the mode of their union.
In the year 1767, Mr Hunter became a member of the corporation of surgeons; and in the year following, through his brother's interest, he was elected one of the surgeons of St George's hospital. In May 1771, his Treatise on the Natural History of the Teeth was published; and in July of the same year he married Miss Home, the eldest daughter of Mr Home, surgeon to Burgoyne's regiment of light horse. The expense of his pursuits had been so great, that it was not till several years after his first engagement with this lady that his affairs could be sufficiently arranged to admit of his marrying.
Though after his marriage his private practice and professional character advanced rapidly, and though his family began to increase, he still devoted much of his time to the forming of his collection, which, as it daily became larger, was also attended with greater expense. The whole suit of the best rooms in his house were occupied by his preparations; and he dedicated his mornings, from nine to eight o'clock (the hour for breakfast), entirely to his pursuits. To these he added such parts of the day as were not engaged in attending his patients.
The knowledge he derived from his favourite studies he constantly applied to the improvement of the art of surgery, and omitted no opportunity of examining morbid bodies; from which he made a collection of facts, which are invaluable, as they tend to explain the real causes of symptoms, which during life could not be exactly ascertained, the judgment of the practitioner being too frequently misled by theoretical opinions, and delusive sensations of the patients.
In the practice of surgery, where cases occurred in which the operations proved inadequate to their intention, he always investigated, with uncommon care, the causes of that want of success; and in this way detected many fallacies, as well as made some important discoveries, in the healing art. He detected the cause of failure, common to all the operations in use for the radical cure of the hydrocele, and was enabled to propose a mode of operating, in which that event can with certainty be avoided. He ascertained, by experiments Hunter, and observations, that exposure to atmospherical air simply, can neither produce nor increase inflammation. He discovered in the blood so many phenomena connected with life, and not to be referred to any other cause, that he considered it as alive in its fluid state. He improved the operation for the fistula lacrymalis, by removing a circular portion of the os unguis instead of breaking it down with the point of a treacher. He also discovered that the gastric juice had a power when the stomach was dead or dissolving it; and gave to the Royal Society a paper on this subject, which is published in the Philosophical Transactions.
In the winter 1773, he formed a plan of giving a course of lectures on the theory and principles of surgery, with a view of laying before the public his own opinions upon that subject. For two winters he read his lectures gratis to the pupils of St George's Hospital; and in 1775, gave a course for money upon the same terms as the other teachers in the different branches of medicine and surgery. But giving lectures was always particularly unpleasing to him; so that the desire of submitting his opinions to the world, and learning their general estimation, were scarcely sufficient to overcome his natural dislike to speaking in public. He never gave the first lecture of his course without taking 30 drops of laudanum to take off the effects of his uneasiness.
Comparative anatomy may be considered as the pursuit in which Mr Hunter was constantly employed. No opportunity escaped him. In the year 1773, at the request of his friend Mr Walshi, he dissected the torpedo, and laid before the Royal Society an account of its electrical organs. A young elephant, which had been presented to the Queen by Sir Robert Barker, died, and the body was given to Dr Hunter, which afforded Mr Hunter an opportunity of examining the structure of that animal by afflicting his brother in the dissection; since that time two other elephants died in the Queen's menagerie, both of which came under Mr Hunter's examination. In 1774, he published in the Philosophical Transactions an account of certain receptacles of air in birds, which communicate with the lungs, and are lodged both among the fleshy parts and hollow bones of these animals; and a paper on the Gillaroo trout, commonly called in Ireland the Gizzard-trout.
In 1775, several animals of that species, called the gymnus electricus of Surinam, were brought alive to this country, and by their electrical properties excited very much the public attention. Mr Walshi, desirous of pursuing his investigations of animal electricity, made a number of experiments on the living animals; and to give his friend Mr Hunter an opportunity of examining them, purchased those that died. An anatomical account of their electrical organs was drawn up by Mr Hunter, and published in the Philosophical Transactions. In the same volume there is a paper of his containing experiments on animals and vegetables respecting their power of producing heat.
In the course of his pursuits, Mr Hunter met with many parts of animals where natural appearances could not be preserved, and others, in which the minute vessels could not be distinctly seen when kept in spirits; it was therefore necessary to have them drawn, either at the moment, or before they were put into bottles. The expense of employing professed draughtsmen, the difficulty of procuring them, and the disadvantage which they laboured under in being ignorant of the subject they were to represent, made him desirous of having an able person in his house entirely for that purpose.
With this view he engaged an ingenious young artist to live with him for ten years; his time to be wholly employed as a draughtsman, and in making anatomical preparations. This gentleman, whose name was Bell, soon became a very good practical anatomist, and from that knowledge was enabled to give a spirited and accurate resemblance of the subjects he drew, such as is rarely to be met with in representations of anatomical subjects. By his labours Mr Hunter's collection is enriched with a considerable number of very valuable drawings, and a great variety of curious and delicate anatomical preparations.
In January 1776, Mr Hunter was appointed surgeon extraordinary to His Majesty; and in the spring he gave to the Royal Society a paper on the best mode of recovering drowned persons.
In the autumn he was taken extremely ill, and the nature of his complaints made his friends, as well as himself, consider his life to be in danger. When he reflected upon his own situation, that all his fortune had been expended in his pursuits, and that his family had no provision but what should arise from the sale of his collection, he became very solicitous to give it its full value, by leaving it in a state of arrangement. This he accomplished with the assistance of Mr Bell and his brother-in-law Mr Home.
In 1778, he published the second part of his Treatise on the Teeth, in which their diseases, and the mode of treatment are considered. This rendered his work upon that subject complete. He published also in the Philosophical Transactions a paper on the Heat of Animals and Vegetables. In 1779, he published his account of the Free Martin in the Philosophical Transactions; and in 1780, he laid before the Royal Society an account of a woman who had the smallpox during pregnancy, where the disease seemed to have been communicated to the fetus.
In 1781, he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Sciences and Belles Lettres at Gottenburg. And in 1782, he gave the Royal Society a paper on the Organ of Hearing in Fish. Besides the papers which he presented to that learned body, he read six Cronion lectures upon the subject of Muscular Action, for the years 1776, 1778, 1779, 1780, 1781, and 1782. In these lectures he collected all his observations upon muscles, respecting their powers and effects, and the stimuli by which they are affected; and to these he added Comparative Observations upon the moving Powers of Plants.
These lectures were not published in the Philosophical Transactions, for they were withdrawn as soon as read, not being considered by the author as complete dissertations, but rather as materials for some future publication.
It is much to be regretted (says Mr Home) that Mr Hunter was so tardy in giving his observations to the public; but such was his turn for investigation, and to extensive the scale upon which he instituted his inquiries, that he always found something more to be accomplished, and was unwilling to publish anything which appeared appeared to himself unfinished. His observations on the muscular action of the blood-vessels were laid before the Royal Society in 1780, and yet he delayed publishing them till his observations on the blood and inflammation were arranged; and they make part of the volume which was published after his death.
In 1783, he was chosen into the Royal Society of Medicine and the Royal Academy of Surgery in Paris; and the same year the lease of the house which he occupied in Jermyn Street having expired, he purchased the lease of a large house on the east side of Leicester Square, and the whole lot of ground adjoining to Castle Street, on which there was another house. In the middle space between the two houses, he erected, at the expense of £3,000, a building for his collection; though, unfortunately for his family, the lease did not extend beyond 24 years.
In the building formed for the collection there was a room fifty-two feet long, by twenty-eight feet wide, lighted from the top, and having a gallery all round, for containing his preparations. Under this were two apartments; one for his lectures, and the other, with no particular delineation at first, but afterwards made use of for weekly meetings of medical friends during the winter. To this building the house in Castle Street was entirely subservient; and the rooms in it were used for the different branches of human and comparative anatomy.
About this period Mr Hunter may be considered as at the height of his surgical career; his mind and body were both in their full vigour. His hands were capable of performing whatever was suggested by his mind; and his judgment was matured by former experience. Some instances of his extraordinary skill may very properly be mentioned.
He removed a tumor from the side of the head and neck of a patient at St George's Hospital, as large as the head to which it was attached; and by bringing the cut edges of the skin together, the whole was nearly healed by the first intention.
He dissected out a tumor on the neck, which one of the best operating surgeons in this country had declared, rather too strongly, that no one but a fool or a madman would attempt; and the patient got perfectly well.
He discovered a new mode of performing the operation for the popliteal aneurism, by taking up the femoral artery on the anterior part of the thigh, without doing anything to the tumor in the ham. The safety and efficacy of this mode have been confirmed by many subsequent trials; and it must be allowed to stand very high among the modern improvements in surgery.
If we consider Mr Hunter at this period of his life, it will afford us a strong picture of the turn of his mind, of his desire to acquire knowledge, and his unremitting affability in prosecuting whatever was the object of his attention.
He was engaged in a very extensive private practice; he was surgeon to St George's Hospital; he was giving a very long course of lectures in the winter; he was carrying on his inquiries in comparative anatomy; had a school of practical human anatomy in his house; and was always employed in some experiments respecting the animal economy.
He was always solicitous for some improvement in medical education; and, with the assistance of Dr Fordyce, instituted a medical society, which he allowed to meet in his lecture-room, and of which he was chosen one of the patrons. This society, called the Lyceum Medicum Londinensis, under his auspices and those of Dr Fordyce, has acquired considerable reputation, both from the numbers and merits of its members.
In the year 1786, in consequence of the death of Mr Middleton, Mr Hunter was appointed deputy surgeon-general to the army. He now published his work upon the Venereal Disease, which had been long expected by the public; and, if we may judge from the rapid sale of the first edition, these expectations have not been disappointed. He also published a work entitled Observations on certain Parts of the Animal Economy. In this work he has collected several of his papers inserted in the Philosophical Transactions, which related to that subject, having permission from the president and council of the Royal Society to reprint them; there are also Observations upon some other Parts of the Animal Economy, which had not before been published. This work met with a very ready sale.
In the year 1787, he gave a paper to the Royal Society, containing an Experiment to determine the Effect of extirpating one Ovarium on the Number of Young; a paper in which the wolf, jackal, and dog, are proved to be of the same species; and a third upon the Anatomy of the Whale Tribe. These papers procured him the honour of receiving Sir John Copley's annual gold medal, given as a mark of distinguished abilities.
His collection, which had been the great object of his life, both as a pursuit and an amusement, was now brought into a state of arrangement; and gave him at length the satisfaction of shewing to the public a series of anatomical facts formed into a system, by which the economy of animal life was illustrated. He showed it to his friends and acquaintances twice a-year, in October to medical gentlemen, and in May to noblemen and gentlemen, who were only in town during the spring. This custom he continued to his death.
Upon the death of Mr Adair, which happened in the year 1792, Mr Hunter was appointed inspector-general of hospitals, and surgeon-general to the army. He was also elected a member of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. In the year 1791, he was so much engaged in the duties of his office, as surgeon-general to the army, and his private practice, that he had little time to bestow upon his scientific objects; but his leisure time, small as it was, he wholly devoted to them.
In 1792, he was elected an honorary member of the Chirurgico-Physical Society of Edinburgh, and was chosen one of the vice-presidents of the Veterinary College, then first established in London. He published in the Transactions of the Society for the Improvement of Medical and Chirurgical Knowledge, of which society he was one of the original members and a zealous promoter, three papers on the following subjects: Upon the Treatment of Inflamed Veins, on Ingestion, and on a Mode of conveying Food into the Stomach in Cases of Paralysis of the Oesophagus.
He finished his Observations on the Economy of Bees, and presented them to the Royal Society. These observations were made at Earl's Court, and had engaged his attention for many years; every inquiry into the economy of these insects had been attended by almost unsurmountable unsurmountable difficulties; but these proved to him only an incitement, and the contrivances he made use of to bring the different operations of these indefatigable animals to view were almost without end.
Earl's Court to Mr Hunter was a retirement from the fatigues of his profession; but in no respect a retreat from his labours; there, on the contrary, they were carried on with less interruption, and with an unwearied perseverance. From the year 1772 till his death, he made it his custom to sleep there during the autumn months, coming to town only during the hours of business in the forenoon, and returning to dinner.
It was there he carried on his experiments on digestion, on exfoliation, on the transplanting of teeth into the combs of cocks, and all his other investigations on the animal economy, as well in health as in disease. The common bee was not alone the subject of his observation, but the wasp, hornet, and the less known kinds of bees, were also objects of his attention. It was there he made the series of preparations of the external and internal changes of the silk worm; also a series of the incubation of the egg, with a very valuable set of drawings of the whole series. The growth of vegetables was also a favourite subject of inquiry, and one on which he was always engaged in making experiments.
The collection of comparative anatomy which Mr Hunter has left, and which may be considered as the great object of his life, must be allowed to be a proof of talents, affluence, and labour, which cannot be contemplated without surprise and admiration. It remains an unequivocal test of his perseverance and abilities, and an honour to the country in whose schools he was educated, and by the patronage of which he was enabled on so extensive a scale to carry on his pursuits. In this collection we find an attempt to expose to view the gradations of Nature, from the most simple state in which life is found to exist, up to the most perfect and most complex of the animal creation—man himself.
By the powers of his art, this collector has been enabled so to expose, and preserve in spirits or in a dried state, the different parts of animal bodies intended for similar uses, that the various links of the chain of perfection are readily followed and may be clearly understood.
This collection of anatomical facts is arranged according to the subjects they are intended to illustrate, which are placed in the following order: First, Parts constructed for motion. Secondly, Parts essential to animals respecting their own internal economy. Thirdly, Parts superadded for purposes connected with external objects. Fourthly, Parts for the propagation of the species and maintenance or support of the young.
Mr Hunter was a very healthy man for the first forty years of his life; and, if we except an inflammation of his lungs in the year 1759, occasioned most probably by his attention to anatomical pursuits, he had no complaint of any consequence during that period. In the spring of 1769, in his forty-first year, he had a regular fit of the gout, which returned the three following springs, but not the fourth; and in the spring of 1773, having met with something which very forcibly affected his mind, he was attacked at ten o'clock in the forenoon with a pain in the stomach, attended with all the symptoms of angina pectoris. In the life of him prefixed to his Treatise on the Blood, Inflammation, and Gun-Shot Wounds, the reader will find one of the most complete histories of that disease upon record. Suffice it, in this place, to say, that for twenty years he was subject to frequent and severe attacks of it, which however did not, till a short time before his death, either impair his judgment or render him incapable of performing operations in surgery. "In autumn 1790 (says Mr Home), and in the spring and autumn 1791, he had more severe attacks than during the other periods of the year, but of not more than a few hours duration: in the beginning of October 1792, one, at which I was present, was so violent that I thought he would have died. On October the 16th, 1793, when in his usual state of health, he went to St George's Hospital, and meeting with some things which irritated his mind, and not being perfectly master of the circumstances, he withheld his sentiments; in which state of restraint he went into the next room, and turning round to Dr Robertson, one of the physicians of the hospital, he gave a deep groan and dropt down dead; being then in his 65th year, the same age at which his brother Dr Hunter had died."
It is a curious circumstance, that the first attack of these complaints was produced by an affection of the mind, and every future return of any consequence arose from the same cause; and although bodily exercise, or dilution of the stomach, brought on lighter affections, it still required the mind to be affected to render them severe; and as his mind was irritated by trifles, these produced the most violent effects on the disease. His coachman being beyond his time, or a servant not attending to his directions, brought on the spasms, while a real misfortune produced no effect.
Mr Hunter was of a short stature, uncommonly strong and active, very compactly made, and capable of great bodily exertion. His countenance was animated, open, and in the latter part of his life deeply impressed with thoughtfulness. When his print was thrown to Lavater, he said, "That man thinks for himself." In his youth he was cheerful in his disposition, and entered into youthful follies like others of the same age; but wine never agreed with his stomach; so that after some time he left it off altogether, and for the last twenty years drank nothing but water.
His temper was very warm and impatient, readily provoked, and, when irritated, not easily soothed. His disposition was candid, and free from reserve, even to a fault. He hated deceit; and as he was above every kind of artifice, he detected it in others, and too openly avowed his sentiments. His mind was uncommonly active; it was naturally formed for investigation, and that turn displayed itself on the most trivial occasions, and always with mathematical exactness. What is curious, it fatigued him to be long in a mixed company which did not admit of connected conversation; more particularly during the last ten years of his life.
He required less relaxation than most other men; seldom sleeping more than four hours in the night, but almost always nearly an hour after dinner; this, probably, arose from the natural turn of his mind being so much adapted to his own occupations, that they were in reality his amusement, and therefore did not fatigue.
In private practice he was liberal, scrupulously honest in saying what was really his opinion of the case, and ready upon all occasions to acknowledge his ignorance, whenever whenever there was any thing which he did not understand.
In conversation, he spoke too freely, and sometimes harshly, of his contemporaries; but if he did not do justice to their undoubted merits, it arose not from envy, but from his thorough conviction that surgery was as yet in its infancy, and he himself a novice in his own art; and his anxiety to have it carried to perfection, made him think meanly and ill of every one whose exertions in that respect did not equal his own.