HUNTER, a name given to a horse qualified to carry a person in the chase. See Horse.

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 child 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 which he had already adopted, that he felt an insuperable aversion to theological pursuits. In this state of mind he happened to become acquainted with Dr Cullen, afterwards so celebrated as 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 was often heard to acknowledge, were the happiest of his life. It was then agreed that he should go to 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 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 the house of Dr Smellie, who was at that time an apothecary in Pall Mall. He brought with him a letter of recommendation to 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 further 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 delivered 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 upon 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 ensure his success. Dr Nichols, to whom he communicated his [7:11:735]scheme, and who about that time declined giving lectures ' in favour of 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, 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 first two 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 expense 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 and France. His lectures suffered no interruption by this journey, as he returned to England soon enough to prepare for his winter course, which commenced 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-accoucheurs, 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 which 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 had 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 as 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 forward 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 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 likew ise defended himself against a reproach which Professor Monro senior had cast upon him, 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 twenty-five 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 Mr William Hewson, 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 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-ghau, 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 ota 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
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adapted his anatomical knowledge to the subjects 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 upon 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 as early as the year 1751 (when ten of the thirty-four plates it contains were completed), was retarded till the year 1775, in consequence of 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.”

When Dr Hunter 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 attained 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 the metropolis. For this purpose, 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 L.7000on 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, which he had 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 expense, 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 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 number of years he employed in making the 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 a most magnificent collection of Greek and Latin books. 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 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 expense of upwards of L.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, and that Dr Hunter should have the refusal of it at L.500 under the valuation. This was accordingly done, and Dr Hunter purchased it for the sum of L. 1200.

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 headach 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 attempt. 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. During the night and the following 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. He died on Sunday the 30th of March 1783.

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 was bequeathed to the university of Glasgow, where it is now deposited.

Hunter, John, an eminent surgeon, was the youngest child of John Hunter of Kilbride, in the county of Lanark. He was born at Long Calderwood on the 13th of July 1728. His father died when he was about ten years of age, from which circumstance his mother was induced to grant him [7:11:737]too much indulgence. In consequence he made no progress at the grammar school, and was almost wholly illiterate at the age of twenty, when he arrived in London. His brother Dr W. Hunter was at that time the most eminent teacher of anatomy, and John expressed a wish to attend him in his researches. The doctor, anxious to make trial of his talents, gave him an arm to dissect for the muscles, with proper instructions how it was to be performed; and the dexterity with which he managed his undertaking exceeded the expectations of his brother.

Having acquired some reputation from this first attempt, his brother employed him in a more difficult dissection, which was an arm in which all the arteries were injected, and these and the muscles were to be preserved and exposed. In the execution of this task he also gave the highest satisfaction, and his brother predicted that he would become a good anatomist, and never want employment. Under the instructions of his brother, and Mr Symonds his assistant, he enjoyed every favourable opportunity of increasing his anatomical knowledge, since that school monopolized all the dissections then carried on in London.

He was admitted into partnership with his brother in the winter of 1755, and a certain department of the lectures was allotted to him; and he also lectured when the doctor was called away to attend his patients. The mind of Mr Hunter was peculiarly fitted for the study of anatomy, and the indefatigable ardour with which he prosecuted it is scarcely to be equalled. He applied to human anatomy for ten years, during which period he made himself master of every thing then known, and also made some considerable additions. He was the first who discovered the existence of the lymphatic vessels in birds.

In 1760 his friends advised him to go abroad, as he exhibited many symptoms of an incipient consumption. In October that year he was appointed a surgeon on the staff by the inspector-general of hospitals, Mr Adair, and in the spring of the ensuing year he went to Belleisle with the army. He served, during the continuance of the war, as senior surgeon on the staff, when he acquired his knowledge of gun-shot wounds. He settled in London on his return to England; but finding that his half-pay and private practice could not support him, he taught practical anatomy and surgery for several winters. He built a house near Brompton, where he pursued the study of comparative anatomy with unabated ardour. He discovered the changes which animal and vegetable substances undergo in the stomach by the action of the gastric juice; the mode in which a bone retains its shape during its growth; and explained the process of exfoliation, by which a piece of dead bone is separated from the living.

On the 5th of February 1767, he was chosen a fellow of the Royal Society. In the year 1768 he became a member of the incorporation of surgeons, and in the following year was elected one of the surgeons of St George’s Hospital, through the influence of his brother. He published his treatise on the natural history of the teeth in May 1771; and in July the same year he married Miss Home, daughter of Mr Home, surgeon to Burgoyne’s regiment of light horse. His private practice and professional reputation advanced with rapidity after his marriage; and although his family increased, he devoted much of his time to the forming of his collection. He discovered the cause of failure in the cure of every case of hydroc¢le, and proposed a mode of operating in which that event may certainly be avoided. He ascertained that simple exposure to the air can neither produce nor increase inflammation; and he considered the blood as alive in its fluid state. He also discovered that the stomach after death is sometimes acted on and dissolved by the gastric juice, respecting which he communicated a paper to the Royal Society.

Comparative anatomy occupied the greater part of his time and attention, and he suffered no opportunity to escape him. He dissected the torpedo in 1773, and laid an account of its electrical organs before the Royal Society. A young elephant which had been presented to the queen having died, it was given to Dr Hunter, and afforded him an opportunity of examining the structure of that monstrous animal, as did also two others which died in the queen’s menagerie. In the year 1774 he published an account, in the Philosophical Transactions, of certain receptacles of air in birds, communicating with the lungs, and lodged in the muscular parts and hollow bones of these animals. Several animals belonging to the species called Gymnotus electricus of Surinam having been brought alive to Britain in 1775, their electrical properties excited a considerable share of the publication, and Mr Hunter purchased many of them after they died, for the purpose of prosecuting his favourite experiments. He published an account of their electrical organs in the Philosophical Transactions for 1775; and in the same volume appeared his experiments on the power of animals and vegetables to produce heat.

Mr Hunter was appointed surgeon-extraordinary to his majesty in 1776, in the autumn of which year he became extremely ill, when both himself and his friends apprehended that his life was in danger; but he happily recovered so far as to be able to publish the second part of his treatise on the Teeth in 1778, which completed the subject; and in 1779 he published in the Philosophical Transactions his account of the Free Martin. He was chosen a fellow of the Royal Society of Sciences and Belles Lettres at Gottenburg, and in 1783 he became a member of the Royal Society of Medicine and the Royal Academy of Surgery in Paris. When Mr Adair died Mr Hunter was appointed inspector-general of hospitals, and surgeon-general to the army. This event happened in 1792, at which time he was elected honorary member of the Chirurgo-Physical Society of Edinburgh, and one of the vice-presidents of the Veterinary College of London, then first established. He published also three papers on the treatment of inflamed veins, on intro-susception, and on the mode of conveying food into the stomach in cases of paralysis of the oesophagus.

On the 16th of October 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 sixty-fifth year, the same age at which his brother Dr Hunter had died.