John B. Hunter

“ HUNTER, JOHN (1728-1793) , British physiologist and surgeon, was born on the 13th1 of February 1728, at Long Calderwood, in the parish of East Kilbride, Lanarkshire, being the youngest of the ten children of John and Agnes Hunter. His father, who died on the 30th of October 1741,2 aged 78, was descended from the old Ayrshire family of Hunter of Hunterston, and his mother was the daughter of a Mr Paul, treasurer of Glasgow. Hunter is said to have made little progress at school, being averse to its restraints and pursuits, and fond of country amusements. ”

“ He arrived accordingly in the metropolis in September 1748, about a fortnight before the beginning of his brother’s autumnal course of lectures. After succeeding beyond expectation with the dissection of the muscles of an arm, he was entrusted with a similar part injected, and from the excellence of his second essay Dr Hunter predicted that he would become a good anatomist. Seemingly John Hunter had hitherto received no instruction in preparation for the special course of life upon which he had entered. ”

“ No man cared less for the profits of the medical profession, or more for the honor thereof, than the great Dr. John Hunter. He was honest, honorable, and simple in his every day life. His works, which contributed more to the science of medicine than any other writings during a thousand years, were simply announced as by John Hunter. A plain door plate, with the same name, announced his residence. Money was a secondary consideration to him. The following shows that he desired a professional brother to so consider it ”

“ His works were announced as the works of John Hunter; and John Hunter on a plain brass plate announced his residence. His honour and his pride made him look with contempt on the unworthy arts by which ignorant and greedy men advance their fortunes. He contemplated the hallowed duties of his art with the feelings of a philanthropist and a philosopher; and although surgery had been cultivated more than 2000 years, this single individual did more towards establishing it as a science, than all who preceded him. ”

“ In the following year, when Lord Howe hoisted his flag on board the Queen Charlotte, Hunter obtained permission to serve with him as a volunteer, and in this capacity was present in the battle of 1 June 1794. He remained in the Queen Charlotte till early in 1795, when he was appointed governor of New South Wales, in succession to Phillip. Under the auspices of Hunter, himself an experienced and scientific navigator, the exploration of the coast line of Terra Australis made rapid progress, and to him must be assigned a share in the credit of the early discoveries of George Bass [q. v.] ”

“ James Hunter being a simple man, and without learnyng, and a Fletcher by occupation, so that he coulde be charged with no greate knowledge in Doctrine, yet because he often vsed the suspect companye of the rest, he was accused. ”

“ Other discoveries made by John Hunter are described in William Hunter’s Medical Commentaries. But it soon appeared that the younger brother felt he did not receive a due share of praise and acknowledgment of his labours, while the elder considered every discovery made in his dissecting-room as more or less his property. John continued to dissect “with an ardour and perseverance of which there is hardly any example. ”

“ George’s Hospital, the conduct of his colleagues had provoked him; he made no observations, but retiring into another room, suddenly expired, October 16, 1793.
After these details no man will deny that John Hunter possessed high genius, and that he employed his talents nobly. He was indeed of a family of genius: his younger brother was cut off early, but not until he had given promise of eminence. Dr. Hunter was, in our opinion, equal in talents to John, the subject of this memoir, though his mind received early a different bias. And in the next generation the celebrated Dr. ”

“ Hunter’s whole collection, together with his fine library of Greek and Latin classics, and an endowment of £8000, by his will became, after the lapse of twenty years, the property of the university of Glasgow.
Hunter was never married, and was a man of frugal habits. Like his brother John, he was an early riser, and a man of untiring industry. He is described as being in his lectures, which were of two hours’ duration, “both simple and profound, minute in demonstration, and yet the reverse of dry and tedious” ”

“ You’d better get in as early as you can and look after it yourself. Those stable men don’t care for anything that ain’t their own.”
John Hunter stood speechless till the end of the story, and then helped tie the doctor’s team.
“That all comes from that miserable team! I’m glad one of them did have to be shot. I’ve half a notion to shoot the other one; it’s all cut up by the wire and ’ll take no end of trouble to cure. Hugh said horses and dogs talked with their tails, and I guess they do. Say, will you tell Elizabeth about the horse? ”

“ JOHN HUNTER. A life and character like that of John Hunter has many claims upon the honourable remembrance of society; the more, because, for meritorious members of his profession, there is no other public reward than the general approbation of good men. We look upon him with that interest which genius successfully directed to good ends invariably excites; as one whose active labours in the service of mankind have been attended with useful consequences of great extent ”

“ H. Leigh Thomas records [27] that, on his first arrival in London, having by desire called on Hunter at five o’clock in the morning, he found him already busily engaged in the dissection of insects. Rigidly economical of time, Hunter was always at work, and he had always in view some fresh enterprise. To his museum he gave a very large share of his attention, being fearful lest the ordering of it should be incomplete at his death, and knowing of none who could continue his work for him. ”

“ Some time before his death Colin Hunter's health failed and his right hand was paralysed. He died at Lugar, Melbury Road, on 24 Sept. 1904, and was buried at Helensburgh. He married on 20 Nov. 1873, in Glasgow, Isabella, daughter of John H. Young, surgeon-dentist. His wife, with two sons (the elder of whom, Mr. J. Young Hunter, is an artist) and two daughters, survived him. Mrs. ”

“ Hunter, has represented him as an honest, independent, perfectly candid, and most industrious man, indifferent about money, and much attached to science. Now though I believe this sketch to be perfectly correct, yet there were finer traits of character requiring to be depicted ere I should recognise the intellectual resemblance of John Hunter. Those who make the study of nature, and of science, or the attainment of moral good, the ultimate object of their endeavours, are candid, disinterested, benevolent, and humble minded. ”

“ Hunter’s character was evident in all his actions. He readily told all he knew or thought upon every subject ; and was pleased in assisting others to acquire knowledge. It is indeed highly improbable, that a wise and good man should be otherwise than candid. For wisdom teaches him not to form opinions but on sufficient grounds and consideration j and these he would freely reveal, being equally desirous that they should be corrected, if wrong, and acknowledged, if right. ”

“ Another volume was in the possession of the family in 1820, but many appear to be irretrievably lost, Surtees (Durham, vol. i. pt. ii. p. 161) pays a high tribute to the value of Hunter's labours. The greater portion of Hunter's library was sold to John Richardson, bookseller, of Durham, for about 350l. His cabinets of Roman antiquities and coins were acquired by the dean and chapter of Durham. Hunter was elected F.S.A. on 15 Dec. 1725 (Gough, List of Soc. Antiq., p. *4) . Three letters from Lister to Hunter are printed in Nichols's `Literary Anecdotes,' ix. ”

“ Hunter’s physiological opinions, yet it seems proper to observe on the present occasion, that he was not satisfied with those of Haller, which he had heard delivered in his brother’s lectures; and therefore he examined every subject for himself. He seems also to have wrought like an ancient student, not striving for victory with others, but contending with the subject, and with himself. In the whole of his labours and reasonings, we may perceive a most diligent search for every fact belonging to the subject he was investigating, to form the basis on which he reasons ”

“ Hunter said what he had to say, an' the policeman, knowin' that John lived near by, brought the two o' them here. O' course he didn't know about John bein' away; but enough was said for me to ask a question or two, an' I finally got the hull story.
"Hunter has a boy nine years old, who sells papers mornin's an' evenin's, an' when he sells out he never has more 'n thirty or forty cents, or thereabouts, to show for it. Every night the boy brings this money home an' turns it over to his mother. A good lad, you see. ”

“ John Hunter was as remarkable for his industry as for his talents, of which his museum alone forms a most extraordinary proof; and if we look around and contemplate the history of those men whose talents and acquirements we must esteem, we find that their superiority of knowledge has been the result of great labour and diligence. ”

“ With Hunter the case was widely different. By this time he was a rich man; and—what was of more consequence—actuated by the laudable ambition of making his wealth minister to the progress of the profession, in whose ranks the greater part of it had been earned. Accordingly, having set apart a sum sufficient to insure independence to his declining years, he proposed to expend a large amount of his hoarded treasure in the erection of an anatomical theatre, and to found a perpetual professorship; provided the Government would grant a proper site for a building. ”

“ Thus arose an estrangement between the two Hunters, which continued until the time of William’s last illness, when his brother obtained permission to visit him.
In 1783 Hunter was elected a member of the Royal Society of Medicine and of the Royal Academy of Surgery at Paris, and took part in the formation of “A Society for the Improvement of Medical and Chirurgical Knowledge.” [17] It appears from a letter by Hunter that in the latter part of 1783, he, with Jenner, had the subject of colour-blindness under consideration. ”

“ In September his younger brother, John Hunter, arrived in London, learnt to dissect under him, and next year superintended his practical class. This connection lasted till 1759, during which period William Hunter's lectures gained fame for their eloquence and fulness, and for the abundance of practical illustration supplied. His success in obstetric practice led him to abandon surgery. In 1748 he was elected surgeon-accoucheur to the Middlesex, and in to the British Lying-in Hospital. ”

“ In July 1771, Miss Home became the wife of John Hunter, the distinguished anatomist, to whom she bore two children. She afforded evidence of her early poetical talent, by composing, before she had completed her twenty-third year, the song beginning, "Adieu! ye streams that smoothly glide." This appeared in the Lark, an Edinburgh periodical, in the year 1765. In 1802, she published a collection of her poems, in an octavo volume, which she inscribed to her son, John Banks Hunter. ”

“ HUNTER, JOHN (1738–1821) , vice-admiral and governor of New South Wales, the son of a master in the merchant service, was born at Leith in September 1738. While a child he accompanied his father in a northern voyage, and was wrecked on the coast of Norway. On his return he was sent to his uncle, Robert Hunter, a merchant at Lynn Regis, where he went to school. He was afterwards at school in Edinburgh, and studied for a short time at the university of Aberdeen, being intended for the church. He, however, had made up his mind to go to sea, and in May 1754 was entered on board the Grampus sloop. ”

“ When Owen was appointed assistant-conservator of these collections thirty-four years had elapsed since Hunter’s death. During that time they had been preserved from damage by the devoted care of Mr William Clift, who, after being Hunter’s assistant for a short time, had been appointed conservator, first by the executors, and subsequently by the college. The general arrangement had been prescribed by Hunter, but no descriptive catalogue existed, as it had been, unfortunately, Hunter’s habit to trust to his memory for the history of his specimens. ”

“ Hard-working, and singularly patient and skilful in dissection, Hunter had by his second winter in London acquired sufficient anatomical knowledge to be entrusted with the charge of his brother’s practical class. In the summer months of 1749–1750, at Chelsea Military Hospital, he attended the lectures and operations of William Cheselden, on whose retirement in the following year he became a surgeon’s pupil at St Bartholomew’s, where Percivall Pott was one of the senior surgeons. In the summer of 1752 he visited Scotland. ”

“ I came to this country to get well. I won’t get well, but I won’t allow myself to get into anything that will run me down quicker with worry. You knew it before you went in with me—and you agreed.”
That was the final word John Hunter felt as he tied the skittish brute he had just purchased in the stall beside the door, and turned to put the hay down from the loft above. The sound of plunging feet and snorts of wild terror when the hay fell into the manger turned his mind to the probable truth of Hugh’s opinion of the lately purchased horses. ”