Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 5.djvu/90

150 British Lying-in Hospital. The introduction of male practitioners in this department of the profession, according to Astruc, took place on the confinement of madame la Valliere in 1663. She was anxious for concealment, and called in Julian Clement, an eminent surgeon, who was secretly conducted into the house where she lay, covering her face with a hood, and where the king is said to have been hidden behind the curtains. He attended her in her subsequent accouchments, and his success soon brought the class of male practitioners into fashion. Nor was this a matter of minor import, for hereby the mortality among lying-in women has been materially reduced. Mowbray is said to have been the first lecturer on obstetrics in London, and he delivered his course of lectures in the year 1725. To him succeeded the Chamberlains, after whom, Smellie gave a new air of importance and dignity to the science. It is said that the manners of Smeliie were by no means prepossessing indeed they are described to have been unpleasing and rough ; therefore, although a man of superior talent, he necessarily found a difficulty in making his way among the refined and the more polished circles of society. Herein, Hunter had a decided advantage, for while he was recognized to be a man of superior abilities, his manners and address were extremely conciliating and engaging. The most lucrative part of the practice of midwifery was at this time divided between Sir Richard Manningham and Dr Sandys ; the former of whom died, and the Litter retired into the country just after Mr Hunter became known as an accoucheur.

The field was now in a great measure left open to him, and in proportion as his reputation increased, he became more extensively consulted. His predecessor Dr Sandys, had been formerly professor of anatomy at Cambridge, where he had formed a valuable collection of preparations, which on his death having fallen into the hands of Dr Bloomfield, was now purchased by Mr Hunter for the sum of 200. There can be no doubt that the celebrity of Mr Hunter as an anatomist contributed to increase his practice as an accoucheur, as it was reasonably expected that his minute knowledge of anatomy would give him a correspondingly great command in difficult and dangerous cases. Acting now principally as an accoucheur, he appears to have entirely relinquished the surgical department of his profession ; and desirous of practising as a physician, obtained in 1750, the degree of doctor of medicine from the university of Glasgow. The degree of doctor of medicine at that and other universities of Scotland, was at this period granted, on the candidate's paying a certain sum of money and presenting a certificate from other doctors of medicine of his being qualified to practise the healing art but so much was the facility of obtaining these degrees abused that this method of granting them has been very properly abolished. Shortly after obtaining his diploma, Dr Hunter left the family of Mr Douglas, and went to reside in Jenny n Street, Soho Square.

The following summer he revisited his native country, for which, amidst the professional prosperity of a town life, he continued to entertain a cordial affection. He found on his arrival that his mother was still living at Long Calderwood, which was now become his own property, in consequence of the death of his brother James, who died in the 28th year of his age. It is worthy of notice, that this young man had been a writer to the signet in Edinburgh; but disliking the profession of the law, he went to London, with the intention of studying anatomy under his brother William so that it would almost appear, that in the family of the Hunters there was an hereditary love for medical science. Ill health, however, which bows down the intellectual power of the strongest of mankind, preyed upon his constitution; so that he could not carry bis plans into execution, and he therefore returned to his birth place, where