Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 5.djvu/111

Rh on this occasion, to revert to the effect which it had on his temper. On the following day, I am informed from good authority, he told a baronet, who called on him in the morning, that he was going to the hospital ; that he was fearful some unpleasant rencounter would ensue, and if such should be the case, he knew it must be his death." Notwithstanding this presentiment, he chose to hazard the event, for the purpose of defending a youth, against what appeared to him an oppressive and unjust regulation. The generosity of such a motive is the best apology for the indiscretion in attending the meeting, at which such fatal consequences were, even by himself, apprehended. "On the 16th October," says Sir Everard Home," when in his usual state of health, he went to St George's hospital, and meeting with something which irritated his mind, and riot 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 Robinson, one of the physicians to the hospital, he gave a deep groan, and dropped down dead." His body was conveyed from the hospital in a sedan chair, and underwent a careful medical examination, by which it appeared that among other morbid changes that had occurred, the arteries both of the heart and brain had undergone ossification. "His funeral was attended by a few of his oldest medical friends, and his remains interred in the vault under the parish church of St Martin's in the Fields. He expired, it may be added, in his sixty-fifth year, the same age, at which his brother Dr William Hunter died.

We have now noticed seriatim the principal events which characterized the life of this eminent surgeon, and throughout them we notice the manifestation of great mental energy, combined with considerable powers of originality. His early education had it is true been grievously neglected ; but this very fact left him at liberty to explore more freely new and untrodden paths, which men shackled by scholastic dogmas, and bowing with undue reverence to pre-existing authorities, seldom have the courage to attempt. With such men the deviation from established rules is regarded as a species of heterodoxy; and their learning, therefore, chains them down to a fixed and never improving system. Thus it was with the majority of physicians who embraced, and then promulgated ex cathedra, the doctrines of Galen, Boerhaave, Stahl, and others but it was otherwise with John Hunter ; he was of no school ; he went with an unprejudiced mind to nature, and examined into all her operations with that freedom and independence which can alone advance the true interests of philosophy. He read very little. "I have learned," says one of his biographers, "from a gentleman who was very intimate with him, that when he had made a discovery, it was his custom to relate it to Mr Cruickshanks, who frequently informed him that Haller had made the same observation before." In every department of science, and even in general literature, such coincidences of observation will often occur ; and these too frequently have given rise to charges of wilful plagiarism, of which the suspected author was never guilty. John Hunter was a man of truly original observation; and distinguished himself as much by the practical application of his knowledge, as by the ingenious theories which he adopted. As a surgeon, he was a bold but judicious, a quick yet skilful operator; and suggested many improvements in the mode of performing difficult operations. He discovered the method of operating for popliteal aneurism by taking up the femoral artery on the anterior part of the thigh without interfering with the tumour in the ham, by which the pain, and danger, and future sufferings of the patient are materially mitigated. This indeed ranks among the most important of the improvements which have recently been introduced into the practice of surgery. It may be added, that John Hunter always held the showy part of surgery in the lowest estimation. "To perform an