Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 5.djvu/101

Rh interest, he was, in 1768, (on the authority of Dr Symmons,) elected surgeon to St George's hospital. He had now acquired the desired means for giving his talents and industry full scope; for, as fellow of the Royal Society, he gained the earliest notice of every scientific discovery and improvement which might take place in Europe ; and as surgeon to this hospital, he had the means of extending his observations, and confirming his pathological doctrines. His whole time was now devoted to the examination of facts, and the patient accumulation of such knowledge as he could gradually attain; nor did he, as many others have done, captivated by love of fame, rush prematurely before the notice of the public. "With the exception," says one of his biographers, "of what was published in his name by his brother William, in the year 1764, there does not appear to be any thing by John up to the year 1772. If there were any publications, they must have terminated like many more by others; they must have experienced the fate of abortions, or at least I know nothing of them." Herein he showed very considerable wisdom, and well would it have been for many authors, had they, like John Hunter, persevered even in obscurity in maturing their knowledge before surrendering themselves to a tribunal, whose verdict will always in the end be found to have been dictated by the severest and most rigid principles of justice.

The surgeons of most of the public hospitals in this country have the privilege of selecting, on their own terms, house-pupils, who reside with them a year or two after the completion of their education. Among many who became pupils of John Hunter, and afterwards acquired celebrity in their profession, we may notice the famous Dr Jenner, who boarded in his house in 1770 and 1771, and lived in habits of intimacy with him until his death. "In every conversation," says a friend of Dr Jenner's, "as well as in a letter I received from him, he spoke with becoming gratitude of his friend and master." Even the slightest recollection, or testimony of esteem, from such a man as Dr Jenner, in favour or illustration of the character of John Hunter must be received with interest. In 1771, Mr Hunter published the first part of his Treatise on the Teeth, a very valuable work, the merit of which has not been surpassed by any later production. It may be observed en passant, that this was the only work he sold to the booksellers, all his others being published on his own account, or communicated to miscellaneous collections, chiefly periodicals. Between the appearance of the first and second part of his treatise, Dr Fothergill published his paper on that painful affection of the facial nerve, denominated Tic Doloureux.

While thus rising in eminence, Mr Hunter became attached to the daughter of Mr Boyne Home, surgeon of Burgoyne's regiment of light horse, who was also the father of the celebrated Sir Everard Home. The young lady received his addresses favourably; but the feelings of human nature, impassioned as they may be, must succumb to the cold reality of worldly circumstances; wherefore, their marriage was necessarily delayed until he had obtained a sufficient competency to maintain her in that rank of society, which for their mutual happiness was desirable. When the passions are staked on the success of such an attachment, and are in fact concentrated in the welfare of a being so chosen, disappointment annihilates all moral energy, and reduces the prospects of life into painful ruin;—but when hope is allowed to feed itself on encouragement, and the future alliance definitively fixed, there is an object for exertion;—a stimulus to action which will not allow of rest, until the means of gaining the promised end have been accomplished. This John Hunter appears to have duly felt, and his exertions therefore were correspondingly increased; and during this time, when ho could suspend his professional and scientific toils, nothing gave him greater