Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 5.djvu/87

Rh dotes and occasional flashes of wit and humour, made every company he joined pleased with him and with themselves. He was particularly happy in adapting his conversation to those he conversed with; and while to a lady his discourse appeared that of a polished gentleman, the scholar was surprised by his apt quotations from the classics, and the ease with which he turned to any subject that was brought before him. * * His private charities were as numerous as the objects of compassion which occurred to him; nor should his unbounded and cheerful hospitality be forgot among his other virtues." [He is said to have carried this virtue beyond the bounds which a regard to prudence and economy should have prescribed.] "The crowded attendance and the universal regret of his congregation are the best proofs of the effect of his pulpit eloquence. His enlightened and liberal views of religion made his meeting-house the resort of the leading Scotsmen in London ; and it was here that the natives of the southern part of the island had an opportunity of observing a specimen of that church which produced a Robertson and a Blair. * * Dr Hunter was of a spare habit of body, and remarkably active ; and his usual cheerfulness and flow of good humour continued till within a few weeks of his death." He left a family, consisting of a wife, two sons, and a daughter.

HUNTER, and, two eminent physicians, fall to be noticed here under one head, in order that we may, without violating alphabetical arrangement, give William that priority to which his seniority and precedence in public life render necessary.

was born, May 23, 1718, at Kilbride in the county of Lanark. His great-grandfather, by his father's side, was a younger son of Hunter of Hunterston. His father and mother lived on a small estate in the above county, called Calderwood, which had been some time in the possession of their family. They had ten children, of whom the subject of our present memoir was the seventh, while John was the tenth. One of his sisters married the reverend James Baillie, professor of divinity in the university of Glasgow, and became the mother of Matthew Baillie, the late celebrated physician, whose labours in morbid anatomy have been of such essential service in promoting the study of pathology. William Hunter was sent to the college of Glasgow at the age of fourteen, where he pursued his studies with diligence, and obtained the esteem of the professors and his fellow students. He was at this time designed for the church ; but hesitated, from conscientious motives to subscribe all the articles of its faith. There is perhaps no position so painful as that of a man whose mind is overshadowed by doubts on doctrinal points of religion, having firmness in himself to investigate narrowly the foundation of the principles he should embrace, and rectitude enough to acknowledge with candour the difficulties by which he is embarrassed. Such was the state of mind of William Hunter when he became acquainted with the eminent Dr Cullen, who Mas then established in practice at Hamilton. After much deliberation, under his persuasion, he determined to relinquish his theological studies, and devote himself exclusively to the profession of medicine. Accordingly, having obtained the consent of his father, in the year 1737, he went to reside with Dr Cullen; in whose family he lived nearly three years; a period which afterwards, when he was engaged in the anxieties and turmoil that are ever attendant on the life of a medical man, he looked back upon with peculiar pleasure. It was the oasis on which, in after years, his memory loved to dwell. Between these two gifted individuals a partnership was now formed, and it was agreed that William Hunter should take charge of the surgical, and Dr Cullen of the medic,il cases that occurred in their practice. To carry their mutual wishes more efficiently into operation, it was arranged that William Hunter should proceed to Edin-