Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 5.djvu/91

Rh he died. At this period, Dr Cullen was progressing to that fame which he subsequently attained ; and was residing at Glasgow, where Dr Hunter again met him, to take a retrospect over the eventful changes which had signalized the pi-ogress of their separate lives. Such a meeting could not, under the peculiar circumstances, fail to be interesting to both ; for there scarcely can be any gratification superior to that of meeting in after life, the friend of early youth, pursuing successfully the career which at one time was commenced together, and who is still opening up the paths to new discoveries, in which both sympathize and delight, while, at the same time, the same sentiments of personal friendship remain undiminished in all their original strength and sincerity.

On the return of Dr Hunter to London, he continued corresponding with Dr Cullen on a variety of interesting scientific subjects, and many of the letters have been published by Dr Thomson, in his life of this eminent physician, a work which should be familiar to all who take any interest in the history of medical science.

On the return of Dr Hunter to London, on the resignation of Dr Layard, who had officiated as one of the physicians to the British Lying-in Hospital, we find the governors of that institution voting their " thanks to Dr Hunter for the services he had done the hospital, and for his continuance in it as one of the physicians." Accordingly he was established in this office without the usual form of an election. He was admitted in the following year licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians, and was soon after elected a member of the Medical Society. His history of an aneurism of the aorta appears in the first volume of their "Observations and Enquiries," published in 1757. In 1762, we find him in the "Medical Commentaries," supporting his claim of priority in making numerous anatomical discoveries over that of Dr Monro Secundus, at that time professor of anatomy in the university of Edinburgh. It is not easy to adjust the claims of contemporary discoverers in numerous branches of science ; and though, on this occasion, a wordy war of considerable length was waged concerning the real author of the great doctrine of the absorbent action of the lymphatic system, yet the disputants seem to have left the field, each dissatisfied with the conduct of his antagonist, and each equally confident of being entitled to the honour of being regarded as the real discoverer. It is not worth while to rake up the ashes of any such controversy ; but it is no more than justice to assert, that Dr Hunter vindicated his claims in a manly and honourable tone, at the same time acknowledging that "the subject was an unpleasant one, and he was therefore seldom in the humour to take it up."

In 1762, when the queen became pregnant, Dr William Hunter was consulted, and two years afterwards had the honour to be appointed physician extraordinary to her majesty. We may now regard him as having attained the highest rank in his profession; and avocations necessarily increasing very considerably, he found himself under the necessity of taking an assistant, to relieve him from the fatigues to which he was now subjected. Accordingly he selected Mr Hewson, an industrious and accomplished young man, to be his assistant, and afterwards took him into partnership with him in his lectures. This connexion subsisted until the year 1770, when, in consequence of some misunderstanding, it was dissolved, and Cruickshank succeeded to the same situation. In the year 1767, Dr William Hunter became a fellow of the Royal Society, to which the fol- lowing year he communicated his observations on the bones, commonly supposed to he elephants' bones, which were found near the river Ohio in America. At tins period the attention of men of science had been directed to the large bones, tusks, and teeth, which had been found on the banks of the above river, and the