Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 5.djvu/109

Rh in their own spheres as important in carrying out and completing the great scheme of the universe.

We have thus already traced the life of John Hunter from youth to middle age; from obscurity to eminence; from adversity to prosperity ; and it remains for us now to notice those accessions of disease which rendered the tenure of his life one of extreme uncertainty. We have already stated that in the spring of 1769, he was confined to bed by a serious illness, an acute attack of gout, which returned the three following springs, but not the fourth. In the spring of 1773, he became affected with very severe spasmodic symptoms, owing to disease of the heart. His next illness took place in 1776, and this appears to have been occasioned by inflammation in the arteries of the brain, which gave rise to morbid appearances that were recognized after death. It is said that this attack was occasioned by mental anxiety, arising from the circumstance of his being obliged to pay a large sum of money for a friend for whom he had become security, and which his circumstances rendered extremely inconvenient. After, on this occasion, taking certain refreshments, and feeling relieved, he ventured on attempting a journey of eight miles in a post-chaise; but he became so much worse that he was obliged to go to bed, and was afterwards brought home in a post-chaise. The determination of blood to the head in particular, gave rise to many very remarkable symptoms. When he went to bed he felt giddy, and experienced a sensation of being suspended in the air. This latter painful feeling increased. The least motion of his head upon the pillow seemed to be so great that he scarcely dared attempt it. If he but moved his head half round, it appeared to be moving from him with great velocity. The idea he had of his own size was that of being only two feet long; and when he drew up his foot or pushed it down, it seemed to be moving a vast way. His sensations became extremely acute or heightened; he could not bear the least light, a curtain and blanket were obliged to be hung up before it, and the bed curtains closely drawn. He kept his eyes firmly closed, but if a candle was only passed across the room he could not bear it. His hearing was also painfully acute; as was likewise his sense of smell and of taste ; every thing he put into his mouth appearing of a higher flavour than natural. After being bled, and subjected to other reducing treatment, he recovered from this severe attack; but his constitution had received a shock, which nothing could surmount. An organic disease lurked within, which every excitement would aggravate, if not lead to direct and suddenly fatal consequences. He had no particular illness, however, from this period until 1785, "although," says Sir Everard Home, "he appeared much altered in his looks, and gave the idea of being much older than could be accounted for from the number of years which had elapsed." The physiognomy of death is often impressed on the features of the living, for some time before the fatal event occurs which severs them from their relations with the world. So was it with John Hunter; but in the beginning of the April of this latter year, he became attacked with a dreadfully severe spasmodic disease, which, like his similar attacks, was induced by mental anxiety. His feet, his hands, and then his chest became successively affected; and in effect the extension of the spasm became so considerable that he repeatedly swooned. "I was with him," says his accomplished brother-in-law, "during the whole of this attack, and never saw any thing equal to the agonies which he suffered; and when he fainted away I thought him dead, as the pain did not seem to abate, but to carry him off, having first completely exhausted him." Such were the intense sufferings he endured: nevertheless, he rallied, and partially recovered, nor did any thing of the kind particularly recur until the December of 1789, when at the house of a friend he became afflicted by a total loss of