Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 5.djvu/108

108 with the continental pathology of those days, that the examination proved unsatisfactory. Mr Hunter would have gladly introduced another gentleman; but this did not at all lessen his zeal in promoting the object of the institution." Such was the origin of his connexion with the London Veterinary College, of which he now became one of the vice-presidents.

In the transactions of the Society for improving Medical Knowledge, of which Mr Hunter was one of the original and most zealous members, he published about this period papers on the Treatment of Inflamed Veins, on Introsusception, and on a mode of conveying food into the stomach in cases of paralysis of the oesophagus. He likewise finished his Observations on the Economy of Bees, and presented them to the Royal Society. These observations he finished at Earl's Court, which was his place of retirement from the toils of his profession, but by no means a retreat from those intellectual labours which diversified the whole tenor of his life. "It was there," says Sir Everard Home, "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 making experiments. In this retreat he had collected many kinds of animals and birds, and it was to him a favourite amusement in his walks to attend to their actions and to their habits, and to make them familiar with him. The fiercer animals were those to which he was most partial, and he had several of the bull kind from all parts of the world. Among these was a beautiful small bull he had received from the queen, with which he used to wrestle in play, and entertain himself with its exertions in its own defence. In one of these contests the bull overpowered him and got him down, and had not one of the servants accidentally come by, and frightened the animal away, his frolic would probably have cost him his life." The pleasure which a man of high intellectual endowments, and refined sensibility, takes in watching the habits, and in a manner sympathizing with the feelings exhibited by the lower classes of animals, constitutes one of the most amiable and noble features which his disposition can pourtray, and doubtless must give rise to some of the finest and most generous feelings of which human nature is susceptible. Man is in all cases the representative, or rather the repetition of mere man, and in the sufferings of one of his own species he sees reflected as in a mirror the miseries he himself may possibly have to endure; wherefore the chords of pity are by a latent feeling of self-interest vibrated, and he enters into commiseration with his fellow man; but to extend his thoughts and feelings beyond the possible range of his own experience to the commonly despised, or perhaps maltreated lower animals, manifests a high and generous tone of feeling independent of all such collateral selfishness, and in perfect consonance with the most elevated principles of Christian philosophy. Here then we have before us the instance of a philosopher whose profound knowledge had already, in no trifling degree, contributed to the advancement of science and the benefit of the human race, familiarizing himself, and with child-like simplicity playing, with animals, which, although of a lower order of classification, possess senses as acute, feelings as strong, and necessities as urgent as our own, and which, by their complex and equally perfect organization, prove themselves to be as much the subjects of divine care, and